Competitive MINDSTORMS: A Complete Guide to Robotic Sumo using LEGO(r) MINDSTORMS [Paperback]

David J. Perdue (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1590593758 | ISBN-13: 978-1590593752 | Publication Date: July 30, 2004 | Edition: 1

This book will cover the design and construction of Robot-Sumo robots using MINDSTORMS. Robot building is gaining popularity throughout the mainstream population (Junkyard Wars, Battlebots, etc), but no books have been published with this particular focus.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Competitive MINDSTORMS™ combines the LEGO MINDSTORMS™ Robotics Invention System (RIS) with the game of robotic sumo. It shows you how to design, build, program, and unleash autonomous creations of amazing potential: sumo-bots. With these robots, you’ll push, ram, outwit, and baffle your opponent’s sumo-bot on a robotic sumo arena. This is the book that will help make sure it’s your sumo-bot left standing when the battle is over.

From the lightning-fast Zip-Bam-Bot to the heavyweight Gargantuan-Bot, Competitive MINDSTORMS™ offers seven complete projects and plenty of tricks to widen your MINDSTORMS™ horizons. Illustrated, easy-to-follow building instructions guide you through advanced construction techniques, using pieces from the RIS and its expansion packs. The downloadable programs presented in this book demonstrate basic to extreme sumo-bot programming, and you’ll find thorough coverage of how to run and test each one.

Competitive MINDSTORMS™ reveals techniques for competing in each of the three different robotic sumo strategies it presents: small and fast, medium-class, and big sumo. You’ll find out the purpose of counter-rotating wheels, see how to design slopes--also known as inclined planes or wedges--to run underneath an opponent, learn how to effectively program your sumo-bots, discover the undocumented secrets of successfully participating in and hosting robotic sumo events, and much more.

Competitive MINDSTORMS™ teaches you essential and advanced robotic sumo concepts and techniques. And in no time at all, you’ll be the most feared LEGO MINDSTORMS™ robotic sumo contestant for miles around.

About the Author

David Perdue has been working with LEGO® products his entire life. He discovered the Robotics Invention System 2.5 years ago, and has been building robots and mechanisms ever since. He runs his own website to showcase his creations www.theartofbrick.com. He has been awarded 3 Special Mention awards by the official LEGO® MINDSTORMS company. Perdue is a member of LUGNET (LEGO® User Groups Networks) and participates in several related websites.

Product Details

• Paperback: 335 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (July 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590593758
• ISBN-13: 978-1590593752
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #567,146 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I've written three books on LEGO MINDSTORMS, a popular series of robotics kits. The books are "The Unofficial LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 Inventor's Guide" (No Starch Press, 2010), "The Unofficial LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Inventor's Guide" (No Starch Press, 2007), and "Competitive MINDSTORMS: A Complete Guide to Robotic Sumo Using LEGO MINDSTORMS" (Apress, 2004). I have an MIS degree (Management Information Systems) and currently work for EMC as an Implementation Delivery Engineer. I currently live in Minnesota where I battle blizzards in the winter, enjoy riding my bicycle in the summer, and hang out at coffee shops year-round.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Packed with valuable tips, tricks, and techniques, March 5, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Competitive MINDSTORMS: A Complete Guide to Robotic Sumo using LEGO(r) MINDSTORMS (Paperback)

Competitive Mindstorms: A Complete Guide To Robotic Sumo Using Lego Mindstorms is a hobby guide to using the Lego Mindstorms Robotic Invention System to design, build, program, and unleash autonomous "sumo-bot" creations for use in a robotic sumo arena. Written by dedicated Lego Mindstorms enthusiast David Perdue, Competitive Mindstorms introduces the reader to the sumo-bot, provides seven projects designed to give hands-on experience in three different approaches to robotic sumo (small-and-fast class, medium class, and big-sumo strategies), presents extensive discussions of Lego pieces and building methodology, programming techniques, and much more. Black-and-white photographs illustrate the building instructions in this go-to guide especially friendly to beginners but packed with valuable tips, tricks, and techniques for the seasoned Lego Mindstorms hobbyist as well.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Step-by-step robot designs and programming, November 6, 2004

By 

Jack D. Herrington "engineer and author" (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Competitive MINDSTORMS: A Complete Guide to Robotic Sumo using LEGO(r) MINDSTORMS (Paperback)

The heart of this book is the step-by-step instructions to construct seven different Lego robot chassis. This is just like any Lego instructions you will find, but it's not in color, and there is English text to add more material about the reasons behind the design.

In addition there is Mindstorms control code to accompany each chassis design. The programming language is Not Quite C (NQC). Installation instructions for NQC are included as this is a step you will have to take in addition to the standard Mindstorms installation.

The bots range from just a small construction around the RCX control block to designs that are 'gargantuan'. They are as sturdy and well designed as those that you find in the original Mindstorms kit.

I was disappointed that there was not more emphasis placed on describing the program logic. I would have appreciated flow charts as most of the control logic is simple state machines.

Overall I think this would be a fine book for anyone serious about Mindstorms sumo.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars tinker with hardware and software, January 29, 2005

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Competitive MINDSTORMS: A Complete Guide to Robotic Sumo using LEGO(r) MINDSTORMS (Paperback)

The Lego company has a Mindstorms product line that lets you build Lego models with simple programmable electronics. Easy but fascinating robots. Perdue offers you third party support, in the form of advice that is independent of the company. This book is an amalgam of neat assembly instructions and diagrams of robots to build, with accompanying source code to control them.

The Lego library is easy enough to understand. You code in C, and link to that library. So the outlook is procedural, not object oriented. But for the code examples shown, and for any code that you are likely to write, their sizes are small enough that a procedural approach is perfectly adequate. And with less overhead than an object oriented outlook.

A nice aspect is that you can tinker with both the hardware and software, in tight feedback design loops of changing something and testing it. In other projects, often it might be purely software. Which may not appeal to you, if you're the sort who is attracted to robotics.