Customer Reviews

LEGO Mindstorms NXT: The Mayan Adventure (Technology in Action)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The description that Amazon is providing lacks detail, so let me please share with you how this book works.

First, there are 5 robot projects that require one (1) NXT robotics kit - preferably the retail kit, but the educational kit will work with some minor substitutions.

The book has a storyline running through it - Evan is on vacation with his archaeologist uncle in Guatemala, exploring a newly discovered Mayan tomb. The archaeology team begins to encounter problems in accessing areas of the tomb and Evan comes to the rescue by offering to build small robots that can go in and accomplish certain tasks that a human cannot.

The book is broken into 5 sections. Each section has 1 chapter that has part of the fictional story. The story starts in Chapter 1 and continues in chapters 5, 9, 13, 17, and concludes in chapter 21.

Next, each section contains a "building theory" chapter that helps you to examine the problem the archaeology team has encountered and to brainstorm (mindstorm) a robotics solution. You use a "Design Journal Page" for each robot (and I've included 6 blank copies in the back of the book for you to follow along). These theory chapters are found in chapters 2, 6, 10, 14, and 18.

Finally, complete building instructions (photos) are provided for all 5 robots in chapters 3, 7, 11, 15, and 19. Programming instructions (screenshots of the NXT-G programming language) are provided in chapters 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20. In these chapters you'll also find instructions for setting up your "testing environment" to simulate the challenges faced by the archaeological team.

Also included are some appendices that cover websites, blogs, how to document your own robot creations, NXTLOG (community web tool) and the new Compass Sensor.

When brainstorming the book, I thought about just a book full of robot building instructions, but then I realized it would be more fun to wrap the 5 robots up in a story that young readers (and some young-hearted adults) will find entertaining and inspiring.

I hope you like the book... I'm very proud of it and I provide my email address in the book for my readers to send me pictures and comments about their experience with the book.

My 13-year old son loves the NXT, but he's too busy to sit down with a kit and make his own projects. He has BEGGED for step-by-step building and programming instructions for NXT robots.

This book has met his need in spades.

There are five robots in the book to build and program, and step-by-step instructions are provided for each. The book also has a friendly, encouraging style, which kids and parents will appreciate.

The model instructions that come with the NXT kit are good, but the kit only provides instructions for building four robots. Your child will go through those robots in a hurry! (Mine did). If there are parents out there who have purchased an NXT kit for their child, then I'd encourage you to make this book a companion purchase.

For those kids who DO have time to get creative, the book encourages that, too. Each robot in the book is given a specific "mission" to complete, and kids are encouraged to complete the mission by using their own robot designs. There's a "design journal" in the back of the book, where kids can keep track of their own NXT creations.

This is the ONLY NXT book out there that caters to kids. If you and/or your child are new to the NXT, then this book is a perfect and USEFUL introduction.

I cannot describe just how great this book is - I am a software engineer with over 13 years of experience and found Mr. Kelly's approach to learning to play with the NXT excellent and beyond my expectations. The first four chapters are broken up logically. Chapter 1 contains a well written story and lays the foundation of the problems and challanges that await the reader. During this chapter the first 'problem' is introduced. The 2nd chapter is devoted exclusively towards reiterating the problem and laying out the analysis of 'how to solve' the problem at hand. Also during this chapter the reader is given an introduction on a "Design Journal" that will later assist them building the solution. The end of the chapter 2, the reader can continue to read chapters 3 and 4 - which layout the author's solution to the problem or spend time on attempting their solution to the problem that was just introduced and analyzed. Chapter 3 deals with the 'hardware' implementation of the solution - specifically the building of the robot. Chapter 4 lays out the software solution. This was exactly the best approach for young readers!! However, don't feel this book is something you can give your child and then walk away. You have to involve yourself in the process - you have to read it, you have to work the solution with your budding LEGO master builder. I am working through the exercises with my 10 year old son who has been interested in robots for a number of months now. He has really enjoyed reading the book and has even started working out his own solutions with the "design journal".

I love this book. Having been an Industrial Arts teacher years ago I can appreciate the planning process for each building project. Though I know the story line is more for kids than adults, I am enjoying reading it and then building and performing the robot challenges. I think the Design Journal page is great because it will help me develop robots beyond what is offered in this book. In essence it helps me think! I received the Mindstorms NXT set for Christmas at age 64. I love to build things and haven't had this much fun doing it for years. The Mindstorms NXT is an excellent learning tool for youngsters and an excellent way to keep an "oldster's" mind young. This book truly enhances the learning experience.

My 9 year old son absolutely devoured this book. He talks incessantly about building robots and made his own robot design journal page based on the one in the book. I'm a professional software developer, and I've been searching for a way to teach my kids to program. They can't type, so normal languages are just mechanically too hard. I tried StarLogo, Squeak, and a few others until I found the NXT programming environment. They managed to LEGO-ify programming. This book makes brings it all together in an enjoyable way. A+

We got this book for my son (age 9) and I to develop new robots. Was I ever pleased to see how this book is designed. The concept for the 5 robots has each a storyline, the theory, the building of the robot, and the programming of the robot.

This book is an excellent buy, and please stay away from "LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Hacker's Guide" I bought it and it is on eBay for sale. It has little to do with hackink the mindsorm and more in hacking your wallet.

D. Raines posted the exact same review (with the exact same words) for Dave Prochnow's book (LEGO Mindstorms NXT Hacker's Guide). I doubt D. Raines purchased either book. This book does teach robot building skills and the other reviews back this up. LEGOMAN (D. Raines) has posted an inaccurate and very short review without providing any evidence for his statement.

If it was possible to give this book 10 stars, I would not hesitate to do so. The stories about Evan and Uncle Philip with his team exploring the Mayan pyramid surely touch a childs imagination (I am 46 and even I am floating away with Evan beating the intellect of those adults in the team). On the technical side, this book really shines. I bought my first NXT set early december 2006. But beside the standard robot instrucions include, I feeled that I did not understand perfectly. With RCX I used NQC as programming language. But I am not used to the graphical interface of Lego. Jim Kelly made a very nice addition in this field. His explanations have just enough detail which make them easy to follow.

When it comes to construct those robots, there is very much room for your own creativity and ideas. There is only one minor flaw, those photographs should be in color even when the price of the book raises. This book really deserves color photographs. But even in black and white, those photographs are easy to follow.

The book in general encourages you to explore your own mind when you design your robots. There are many possible ways to build the same robot. Don't just copy the robots from the book. Use your imagination and make your own changes.

Also the robot construction journals are very helpfull when planning and building a robot. Design your own journals based onto those inside the book will keep the book intact. Those journals give you a way to structure the robot creation process. There is more to this process than constructing, programming and testing. The more you structure your mind the better, and those journals helps you with this.

I have one remark at the Explorobot. Since the writing of this book (and this is no way a shortcoming or negative) HiTechnic constructed a lot of interesting sensors like a Compass and a Gyro sensor. The compass sensor is available, the gyro not on this moment. If you can you should buy a compass sensor from HiTechnic which makes your eploration much more accurate. As an example :

You know from the map that those corners are 90°. So when you start of toward the first corner, measure the direction.
Then when you reach the first corner make rotation of "your initial direction" minus 90°.
Then you go straight to the next corner.

When you constantly measure your direction, you can prevent friction loss causes deviation from the optimal path to follow.

This is a little detail which makes your pyramid exploration much more real. Your not assuming you follow a straight path but you ARE following a straight path unesteemed one wheel feels more or less resistance than the other.

Sorry that I am deviating a little from the main subject but I feel that the author has a very important field here unexploited. I admit it was impossible to include the compass sensor in the book because the correct decision was made to use only parts included in the standard NXT set.

But maybe it is possible to setup an accompanion website at which such topics are explaned. And because the author is encouraging his audience to send photos of their creation, maybe those can find a place on the website also. A website can much more easily updated than a book.

As a conclusion this is a great book for both adults and children interested in Robotics. It shows clearly how robotics can serve in solving daily life situations. And surely it will teach you the basics of robotics after which you can go on designing your own creations.

Friendly greetings,

Bad_Wolf
Belgium
Europe

(This review is actually written by Jonathan Daudelin)

I've been designing Lego robots for five years, and have never seen a book that teaches skills in such an interesting and simple a way as this one. The story line flows very nicely, and almost persuades one that NXT robots would be very useful in exploring an ancient pyramid! It also does a great job of keeping the reader's interest.

For the building part, 5 widely varied robots provide great inspiration and practice. I also enjoyed the author's unique approach to designing robots using Design Journal Pages - places to write down things like the robot description, tasks it needs to complete, etc., which help orienting the reader in building the robot.

The programming chapters were great, too. They're very descriptive and easy-to-follow, and the author has a good way of explaining the different basic blocks, like loop, move, and wait blocks.

All in all, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the Mindstorms NXT. People who are new to the NXT would learn a lot from reading this, but also more experienced people would benefit from the inspiration and unique ideas.

I love this book. It has a fun little story and it explains why and how you build little robots.
That is one of the challenges when you get the robot set. What do you do with it...
This book gives a. planning guide, b. design guide c. programming guide to each of the robots.
Very systematic.
My son is 9 and he can follow the reasoning and he is learning that he needs to think about the design before he starts putting the robot together.
I can highly recommend this book