Customer Reviews

The Lego Mindstorms NXT Zoo! An Unofficial, Kid-Friendly Guide to Building Robotic Animals with the Lego Mindstorms NXT

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Length:: 1:23 Mins

Here are some of my own models taken from the book. I hope you enjoy them.

Hi everyone,

I received this book last week Monday. When I bought this book, I was very sceptical about this book because a peacock on wheels on the cover was a little strange. But I also build a Giraffe with a fifth middle leg based on the book from Benjamin Erwin "Creative Projects with Lego Mindstorms (RIS kit)" which seems also unusual at that time. Also the book of Benjamin Erwin is also an excellent book. So this is of no surprise that I bought this book also.

My skepticism melted as snow for the sun when I saw the creatures and the building instructions inside the book. This book is clearly written with its audience in mind, ie Children. The building instructions are very clear and detailled. The explanations are also easy to follow.

What could be improved, is the explanation of the NXT-G programming language. In my opinion they go not deep enough. An in depth coverage of the NXT motors, touch, ultrasonic, light sensors is missing. Expecially the "Why" and "What for" questions are not answered. But that is already written in Jim Kelly's book "Lego Mindstorms NXT-G Programming Guide". Both books are complementary to each other. So if you buy the NXT Zoo, I think it is a good idea to by the NXT-G programming language also.

I build "Spiderbot" without any problem (I am an adult, I love robotics and bought my first RIS set in august 2005). I found it easy to build, despite the fact those images are not in color. Using color should have added an extra "touch" to this fine book but it would make it also much more expensive. Nevertheless all those images give a very clear and detailled view how to construct the animals.

Also the detailled inventory at the beginning of each design and the part substitution prevent of becoming frustrating when you need a piece of which you just ran out or do no have. You can clearly see what pieces you need and how much before you start building. When you have already bought other Lego Technic sets, you probably will have all the pieces you need. Only the canon seems to be a big problem because this piece seems very hard to find (I am living in Belgium and probably therefore I cannot find a place where I can buy the particular set). But when you live in the USA, there should be no problem at all. Also there are other types of Lego cannons (in the Excoforce sets) which can be substitution for this canon but I did not try it yet.

What I really regret about this book is that it is written in English only. So when your native language is English, your child can start building without problems. But when you like me living in a world with a different language (mine is Dutch), it makes it almost impossible for your child to follow the instructions on its own. I decided to translate the book into my Dutch language for my nephew and when it is allowed by the publisher of this book, I am more than willing to share the Dutch translation with others inside the Lego community. But I think because of copyright matters that this is not allowed. Nevertheless I can understand the reason why it is impossible to produce such books for other languages; English is a main language used in almost every part of the world. When this book should be written in Dutch for example, theya are only selling less than thousand copies because our language and many others are rarely used and only in very small parts of the world.

As my final conclusion. This book is a must have for children with in interest in animals and robotics. In a playfull way, they obtain technic insights and improve their skills. Also this book stimulates creativity because while building you get your own ideas on what could be added. On Spiderbot I would add a second "Ultrasonic" sensor pointed to the ground. So when Spiderbot is on a table, it should detect the end of the table and backup and start walking on another angle. Nevertheless when you add a second Ultrasonic sensor, you have to make sure you are using those Ultrasonic sensor in an intermitting frequency (the front off when your program is using the floor sensor and so fort) otherwise you do not get excact results. If an ultrasonic sensor is too difficult, you can use a light or Hi-Technic color sensor to scan the surface Spiderbot is walking. When the surface changes color, spiderbot backoff. For this kind of approach, your spiderbot can walk only on egally colored surfaces. And when you add a Compass sensor ... You see a lot of extra creativity can add a personal touch to these designs.

So lets start building and experimenting. This book is worth the price which is very reasonable in my opinion.

And about the author Fay Rhodes, very good work indeed! If we had an "intergalactic" Lego Hall of Fame you would have definatelly "First place". Hopefully we will see much more of your work in the future. Also a big "thank you" for your work inside the Lego Community.

Friendly greetings,

Bad_Wolf

In a nutshell: What a great book.

As the author states in the Preface, there are plenty of books for adults that are geared towards NXT, but this book is 100% focused on its primary audience: kids.

First, the subject matter - animals. You can't go wrong with giving kids building and programming plans to build their own skunk, alligator, and dinosaur (only 3 of 9 great little robots). And the designs don't just LOOK like their counterparts - the author has provided programming that makes them mimic the real-life animal. (And the book's website has instructions for adding realistic sounds.)

Second, the building instructions - easy to follow. The author not only provides some of the clearest NXT building instructions to date, but she also provides a complete checklist of the parts required (and the website has a useful chart for locating the needed parts). Also nice is the fact that the list of parts NOT included with the Education Base Kit is very small and the author tells you where the parts can be ordered.

Finally, some random musings:

1. Nice mini-tutorial on using Peeron to locate parts
2. Complete walkthroughs of the programs (with accurate screenshots) for each robot
3. The appendices are a nice addition, with materials for teachers and troubleshooting tips
4. Companion website has additional material for teachers and kids

All in all, the book is a worthy addition to the NXT bookshelf. Even adult fans will enjoy the designs and some of the very smart little design tricks that are shared. And kids are going to love it.

My son has been doing Lego robotics through a school program all year, and he finally saved enough money to buy his own Lego NXT Mindstorms kit. In the past week, he has spent hours tweaking ideas he learned in the program as well as the ones included in the instructions that came with the kit. I thought this book would be a natural fit, since it is one of the few that are made more for children than adults.

He was very excited to get it, too, and immediately started constucting the spider bot... and then he realized he didn't have half the needed parts. So he tried to make the frog bot...and again, same thing. He was very frustrated by this point and asked that we return the book.

I told him I would try to find the parts he was missing online, and, thanks to the companion Web site, starting making a list of what he would need... which ended up being over 200 pieces of dozens of different types!

My son would've rated this book a 1, but I'll give it a couple of extra stars for content, the Web site and the fact it is written for children. But after shelling out $250 for the kit and another $20 for the book, be warned: The spending won't stop there. (Not to mention the hours you'll spend tracking everything down.)

Even though this book is geared toward kids, I would not say it is completely "Kid friendly" especially if you just got the Lego NXT. If you want to build the frog, rabbit, or skunk you have to have the education resource kit in addition to the base kit. You will need even more parts to make the SIX other models; Fay Rhodes does tell you were to get the parts and sometimes shows you where you can substitute. In order to make the elephant, skunk, and peacock, you will need to use fishing line for the pulleys. I tried for over 30 minutes to attach the string on the skunk to get it to "spray" and I eventually gave up and tore it apart. The building instructions are not the best, the pins and other parts never fully attach.
It is hard to get the walking animals legs in alignment. I tried for 20 minutes to get the alligator to walk and it just would not work, but maybe that is because I built it wrong.

I admit, the animals are pretty cool. My favorites are the spider and the elephant.

Over all you should only get this book if you have the parts and you have some experience with the NXT.

As someone who repeatedly tested every model in this book, I can tell you that they work as advertised (IF the instructions are followed and IF you consult the troubleshooting guide when questions arise).

The nine robots in the book are:

1) "Ribbit", a jumping frog
2) "Bunny", a hopping rabbit
3) "Sandy", a walking camel
4) "Spiderbot", an eight-legged spider that avoids objects and walks forward and backward
5) "Snout", a walking alligator that opens and closes its jaws
6) "LEGOsaurus", a lumbering dinosaur
7) "Pygmy", a walking elephant that raises and lowers its head
8) "Polecat", a rolling skunk that swings around, lifts its tail and shoots a dart
9) "Strutter", a rolling peacock that avoids objects, turns and flutters its tail feathers

There's a companion web site to the book ("thenxtzoo" dot com) that features parts substitutions and where you can buy the parts used in the book. The web site also has downloadable instructions for making animal sounds for the book's robots. There's also a teacher's appendix for using these robots in the classroom.

Despite introducing the book's author to the MINDSTORMS NXT, I consider myself a novice robot builder, an assertion with which the author would most certainly agree. If I can build them anyone can! (My thirteen-year-old son had no problem building them, either).

Every effort was made to make the models resemble the real animals they represent. Every effort was made to mimic the actions of the real animals the models represent, too.

The models are just plain fun. I hope you enjoy them as much as we have.

I'm really impressed with this book. The models are solid and easy to construct. The programming is also easy to understand. My daughter and I really enjoyed this book. She gives it a big thumbs up, which is five stars in my book.

Animals have taken over my house. Every time I turn around something is hopping, walking or skittering across the floor. I blame No Starch Press and the LEGO company; a NXT MindStorms kit and a copy of "The LEGO NXT Mindstorms Zoo" ("Zoo") by Fay Rhodes has my 15 year old daughter (with previously no real interest in robots or programming) building all sorts of infernal machines.

The release of the MindStorms NXT has brought forward a plethora of new possibilities and books to inform us of them. No Starch has published several. "Zoo", subtitled "A Kid-Friendly Guide to Building Animals with the NXT Robotics System" seems well pitched at the beginner; all the models are easily built and programming the models for the basic behaviours in the book is easy and well explained.

At first impression a retail NXT buyer may suffer some disappointment, the book is designed for those who have the Educational version of the NXT with a the extra Educational Resource Kit so you will be missing some pieces required for the models. Most NXT owners, though, will have some LEGO already and may have the pieces. Rhodes does go to the trouble of telling you which pieces and where to get them. Just keep this in mind if you are intending to give the book as a gift, you may wish to track down and purchase the extra pieces and include them to avoid disappointment.

The building instructions are a good size, more easily read and understood than those from LEGO themselves which I find a little too small. I also appreciated the parts guide at the start of each model; when you might have to go hunting through other sets for a piece or an alternate the guide meant you could get this over and done with at the beginning rather than just as you are about to complete the model.

The first few models are easily built and programmed, getting progressively harder as you go through the book. None are beyond the capabilities of an even moderately experienced LEGO builder. Rhodes also includes a few sidebars showing alternative parts that can be used for some of the harder to source pieces, a nice touch and one that encouraged my daughter to work around a couple of unavailable parts when building Strutter.

All the model programming uses LEGO's visual programming environment rather than any of the third party languages and tools. A good choice given the book's likely readers. The model programming is a little harder to do from the instructions, though this is more due to the black and white printing and a click together programming environment than any fault by author or publisher. While I had a little difficulty my daughter's eyes were able to cope and so I don't see this as a significant flaw in the book. Rhodes encourages the reader/builder to use the programming environment's ability to chunk code as a block and to develop using a bottom up approach.

For the target market the book is almost perfect, with a good tenor and an excellent choice of models to build. It would be an ideal book to buy for someone who has just gone through building the models included by LEGO in the kit. While the book is aimed at the younger end of LEGO's suggested age range for Mindstorms don't let that put you off purchasing a copy - it's the perfect second book for almost any NXT builder and the "Kid-" could be easily dropped from the subtitle.

Not everyone who wants to build a robot wants it to go fast! Some teachers/students want to teach/learn about building, programming, collaboration and teamwork without being part of a competition. This books provides ideas for learning the concepts MINDSTORMS is famous for while reaching a new audience. The models are creative, educational, artistic, and lend themselves to a variety of discussions and lessons that aren't normally associated with building a robot. I definitely recommend this book. Watch what students can do!

I have had this book for a while, and I am still taken by the inventiveness and, for lack of a better term, FUN of the designs. I admit I am writing this review in large part to combat some of the wrong-headed low-rating reviews provided by others, all of whose sole complaint, it seems to me, is that THEY DIDN'T SO MUCH AS READ THE VERY FIRST PAGE OF THE BOOK (conveniently available for preview right here on Amazon) BEFORE BUYING IT. Mrs. Rhodes is very up-front about the fact that the models were designed with the expanded kit in mind, and she provides links to places where additional parts may be found, in some cases for pennies a piece. In this she is actually a fair bit more responsible than some other authors publishing in the same field. Furthermore, it seems to me that half the fun of books like Mrs. Rhodes is not just about making the given robot, but for inspiring one about the many possibilities. Simply go onto youtube and you will find a host of variant spiders, peacocks, skunks and other LEGO robots that are similar to, inspired by, but not exactly like these, because the creators saw what was done here, then took the ball and ran with it. I hope that you, review reader, might do the same.