By Jonathan Knudsen
October 1999
Pages: 256
ISBN 10: 1-56592-692-7 |
ISBN 13: 9781565926929
(Average of 3 Customer Reviews)
This book is OUT OF PRINT.
Book descriptionThe LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Robotics Invention System (RIS) is a wildly popular kit for building mobile robots. This book contains all the information you need to get the most out of your kit. Based on hands-on robot projects, it includes descriptions of advanced mechanical techniques, programming with third-party software, building your own sensors, working with more than one kit, and sources of extra parts. This book goes far beyond what you'll find in the official documentation to enable you to build and program whatever you can imagine.
Full Description
- Hands-on robot projects, with complete building instructions and programs. Different aspects of these projects are used to explore fundmental issues of mobile robot design.
- A chapter on NQC, a popular programming environment for RIS. You'll learn how NQC fits into the RIS software architecture, as well as how to write programs using NQC's C-like syntax. Includes copious examples.
- A chapter on legOS, an alternate operating system for the RCX. legOS provides very low-level access to the resources of the RCX, enabling complex robot programming. This chapter describes legOS's structure and includes useful sample programs.
- A chapter on pbForth, another powerful option for RCX robot programming. The chapter includes sample programs in Forth.
- A chapter about building your own sensors. Making your own sensors is economical and educational. This chapter describes how to build several different sensors that will work with the RIS kit.
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Browse within this book
Cover | Table of Contents | Index | Sample Chapter | Colophon
Book details
First Edition: October 1999
ISBN: 1-56592-692-7
Pages: 256
Average Customer Reviews: (Based on 3 Reviews)
Featured customer reviews
The Unofficial Guide to LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Robots Review, August 08 2001
I found this book a barns and nobel and had to buy it. it looks very impressive. though i do not currently own any lego mind storms(expensive still). i plan to buy them becuase of this book.
juan
The Unofficial Guide to LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Robots Review, January 18 2001
gkh
The Unofficial Guide to LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Robots Review, January 18 2001
gkh
The Unofficial Guide to LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Robots Review, January 26 2000
Submitted by jeff canar [Respond | View]
A really terrific book. Combined with the Baum book, both should be requisite reading, and packaged with every RIS. I echo other comments about the drawings. Some are much too difficult to follow, and could be improved. Nonetheless, this is a really good reference.
Keep up the great work.
The Unofficial Guide to LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Robots Review, January 06 2000
Submitted by Wolfram Herzog [Respond | View]
Hey, this book is what we needed!
A very good summary of all the things happening around the LEGO Mindstorms kit. A very good starting point for your new ideas.
My only suggestion for a next print: Make the pictures of the building steps in color.
The black&white pictures is really not we Lego users expect (even if the book becomes more expensive)
Wolfram
The Unofficial Guide to LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Robots Review, January 04 2000
Submitted by Timothy O'Brien [Respond | View]
Excellent Job!!! Pay him again O'Reilly to play with lego's and write another book!! I love this book, the only problem with it is the black and white photographs. Dave Baum used a rendering program in his book and the models came out with a lot better detail. But I liked this book for its more detailed mechanical designs and notes on the mathmatics of engineering.
Keep up the good work Mr. Knudsen!!
Tim
The Unofficial Guide to LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Robots Review, December 01 1999
Submitted by richard hellyer [Respond | View]
Awesome book - I especially liked the mechanical ingenuity of the robots (Minerva eg.) and the comparative simplicity of the programs!
The Unofficial Guide to LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Robots Review, November 19 1999
Submitted by Klaas Jan Huizing [Respond | View]
I really liked this book after I'd read it. It gave me a lot of hints, tips and tricks. And, most important of all: I started programming in NQC. It's not very difficult, after having read the book of Knudsen carefully. I am looking forward to more books on the same subject. Preferably by the same author!
The Unofficial Guide to LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Robots Review, November 15 1999
Submitted by Michael Lewin [Respond | View]
I love this book. It is mind boggling what you can do with Mindstorms and this book points you in so many directions. One problem; your eyes will quickly fatigue trying to build the examples - the black and white pictures are not for the fainthearted. My son's young eyes were a valuable aid and together we were able to build some really exciting robots based on the examples shown. Congratulations, Mr. Knudsen, on a job well done.
The Unofficial Guide to LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Robots Review, November 08 1999
Submitted by Tim Smith [Respond | View]
Good book, although beware--Lego has updated the RIS to 1.5, and although most of the changes are minor, they do impact some things in the book. In particular, the really cool "Minerva" project uses 8 of the little beveled gears, and RIS 1.5 only includes 5 of them.
The Unofficial Guide to LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Robots Review, February 04 1999
Submitted by Michael Garriss [Respond | View]
Great book! Being a programmer by trade I am already a fan of the O'Reilly series of books and now they have published a easy to read, well organized book about my "other" favorite hobby.
My suggestion for the next edition: More, more, more. I would like to see more projects, a more complete programming section (especially legOS), and more on the Hitachi H8 archeticure.
Media reviews
"This guide to the wildly popular LEGO MINDSTORM Robotics Invention System is written for the hobbyist who has little in the way of a formal engineering background. The author, Jonathan Knudsen, expresses his wish to help his readers "push this thing as far as it will go". Knudsen's wide-open writing style and incremental exposition allows his reader the freedom to skim when possible and delve deeply when necessary." -JR, fatbrain.com, June 29, 2000
"Lego Mindstorms documentation doesn't get much better than this! Jonathan B. Knudsen, the author of this great book, evidentially did quite a bit of work compiling the information needed to write this book, and his efforts speak highly of him. If you want to have much more fun with the RIS, buy this book and enjoy it to the fullest, you won't get bored for quite a while, if ever!" --Ryan' Mindstorms Web page, Jan 2000
"a must-have for those of you who want to master your RCX" -Denis Cousinea
"Occasionally, we come across a unique and satisfying book on a leading edge topic, and here is one of the best. This book, to date, is the most compete and intellectually beautiful resource for veteran and freshman programmers who want to explore the myriad methods of cross-compiling for the Legos Mindstorms Robotic Invention System. Knudsen has bravely hunted in the enormous jungle of interpreted functions, teleoperated interactive programs and autonomous compiled multitasking threads to bring home a truly new and incredibly useful introduction to alternatively programming for MindStorms. In short, author Jonathan Knudsen and editor Mike Loukides successfully extended Fred Martin's invention beyond the labyrinth halls of MIT, past the toy store shelves, into the hands of serious behavior researchers, technology teachers, and self-taught robotics experimenters." --Mike Greene, Robot Science and Technology, February/March 2000
"I found The Unofficial Guide to LEGO'S MINDSTORM Robots to be an intriguing book that showed me how a child's toy (one that I grew up with and loved to play with) can be animated and extended, bringing imagination to life, after a fashion. This awakening of a toy was accomplished in such a way as to continue to hold the attention of a grown man . . . an excellent reference." --Peter B. MacIntyre
"This is an exceptionally cool book on robotics." --Thom Gillespie, Library Journal, Feb 2000
"If you're a secret scientist planning to build and program your own Lego Mindstorms Robot to take over the world then the new book The Unofficial Guide to Legos Mindstorms Robots, published by O'Reilly is an essential companion." --New Media Creative, March 2000
"You know a toy is no longer a toy when O'Reilly & Associates, the computer-oriented publisher beloved of geeks everywhere, writes a book about it...an excellent introduction to robots in general, Lego robots in particular and many hands-on robot projects." --Nate Heaseley and Gareth Branwyn, LA Times News Service, Feb 6, run in: Skagit Valley Herald ,Elyria OH Chronicle-Telegram, Baltimore Sun, Florida Today, Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"an awesome book-The Unofficial Guide to LEGO(r) MINDSTORMS(tm) Robots! O'Reilly puts out some of the best and most useful books in the computer and Internet industry and we have no doubt this book will be the perfect Christmas gift for the dedicated Mindstorms enthusiast" --Robot Science and Technology Magazine, November 1999
"a book full of fun and useful information about how to build and program Mindstorms robots..." --Will Ware, slashdot.org, November 1999
"a vast array of building and programming tips, tricks, and methods. He gives basic information for the person who is just starting, and introduces the advanced user to the vast network of people and product that have made Mindstorms far more than a child's toy." --Kurt DeMaagd, slashdot.org, November 1999
