Arduino and LEGO Projects

CHAPTER 1

LEGO, Arduino, and The Ultimate Machine

For years LEGO has produced their own computer based system known as Mindstorms. It gave a computer brain to the plastic LEGO bricks that had been around for decades. While Mindstorms has advanced in the 15 years since it was introduced, it was still limited based on the size of the LEGO Intelligent Brick and the available sensors and motors. An alternative to using the LEGO Mindstorms is the Arduino microprocessor, a small computer that can make use of any electrical components with some programming.

Introducing the Arduino

An Arduino (as seen in Figure 1-1) is an open source microcontroller ...