Building Robots With Lego Mindstorms

158 Chapter 9 • Expanding Your Options with Kits and Creative Solutions

The movable plate is supported by two 1 x 4 tiles, which are like plates with

no studs and which provide the ideal smooth surface other parts can slide over

(Figure 9.5). Racks and tiles are a very good combination for producing linear

motion, and we confess we’ve never understood why LEGO didn’t put any tiles

in the MINDSTORMS kit.

Some of the largest and most famous TECHNIC sets reproduce cars.They

are a useful source for, among other things, shock absorbers (Figure 9.6), and large

wheels (Figure 9.7).The use of shock absorbers is not limited to their traditional

function, that ...