Droid Builders Net

LEGO has released their latest robotics firmware for MINDSTORMS NXT as Open Source under their own License (I haven’t look long at it, but it is most likely derived from an existing common license).

You can now start developing your own LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT firmware version. By acception the “LEGO Open Source License Agreement” below, you will be able to look over the shoulders of our firmware developers. This will enable you to change the functionality from the very lowest hardware abstration level to the user ineration level within the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT. The Open Source files include all the source files needed for the ARM7 ATMEL microcontroller and the 8-bit AVR ATMEL microcontroller.

• LEGO.com MINDSTORMS NXT Firmware
  

Our little robot friends on mars have recieved xmas gifts too! In the form of software upgrades ;) Basically it makes them spot dust clouds, whirlwinds and other features, so it can more efficiently choose what data to send back to earth.

Press Release – December 28, 2006

NASA Mars Team Teaches Old Rovers New Tricks to Kick Off Year Four

NASA’s twin Mars rovers, nearing the third anniversary of their landings, are getting smarter as they get older.

The unexpected longevity of Spirit and Opportunity is giving the space agency a chance to field-test on Mars some new capabilities useful both to these missions and future rovers. Spirit will begin its fourth year on Mars on Jan. 3 (PST); Opportunity on Jan. 24. In addition to their continuing scientific observations, they are now testing four new skills included in revised flight software uploaded to their onboard computers.

One of the new capabilities enables spacecraft to examine images and recognize certain types of features. It is based on software developed for NASA’s Space Technology 6 “thinking spacecraft.”

Spirit has photographed dozens of dusty whirlwinds in action, and both rovers have photographed clouds. Until now, however, scientists on Earth have had to sift through many transmitted images from Mars to find those few. With the new intelligence boost, the rovers can recognize dust devils or clouds and select only the relevant parts of those images to send back to Earth. This increased efficiency will free up more communication time for additional scientific investigations.

Follow the link below to read the full Press Release at NASA JPL.

• Mars Exploration Rover Mission: NASA Mars Team Teaches Old Rovers New Tricks to Kick Off Year Four

Microsoft has released their first version of Robotics Studio for Windows Visual Studio 2005. Since it is free and I have a msdn subscription via my work (meaning I don’t have to pay for Visual Studio), I am going to do some tests with the LEGO Mindstorms NXT very soon.

Microsoft Robotics Group has released Microsoft Robotics Studio (1.0) for Web download (see press release). Microsoft Robotics Studio is a Windows-based environment for academic, hobbyist and commercial developers to easily create robotics applications across a wide variety of hardware. The download installs Microsoft Robotics Studio along with samples and tutorials. Tandy Trower provides this welcome letter which includes a list of changes since the last Community Technical Preview (CTP). Download Microsoft Robotics Studio and join the Microsoft Robotics Studio community through our Newsgroup.

• Microsoft Robotics Studio (1.0) Available

If you are building big bots, why not just go all the way? Win DARPA Urban Challenge and score $2 Million cash prize!

December 8, 2006. DARPA Finalizes 2007 Urban Challenge Cash Prize Levels Top Three Finishers to Receive $2 Million, $1 Million and $500,000 Prizes The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will give $2 million, $1 million and $500,000 awards to the top three finishers that complete the course within the sixhour time limit in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge for autonomous robotic ground vehicles, competition organizers announced today.

DARPA’s original cash prize authority for the first two Grand Challenges expired with the passage of the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007. DARPA had planned to award trophies to the top three finishers in the Urban Challenge, but Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Kenneth J. Krieg approved $2 million, $1 million, and $500,000 cash prizes for the first, second and third teams to complete the Urban Challenge’s 60 miles within six hours.

• Darpa Grand Challenge

The waiting is finally over my two LEGO Mindstorms NXT sets arrived today. And I have been spinning around myself in pure joy for hours. I was gladly surprised that the software is both for Windows and Macintosh, although the really interesting software will come from third-parties, there is already being worked on support for LUA, C, Java and some more languages, and the one I am aiming for is the Java language so that I can make interfaces between my own Droids API and LEGO Mindstorms machines, in the future perhaps my Droid Simulator can work directly with the NXT through bluetooth and some yet to be written über-ware.

I spent some time today looking at what other people have already made with the NXT sets, and I must say I’m pretty impressed at the stuff I saw, and it surely puts my ambitions even higher than before, although it shall be no secret that my main interest is in the software part, I am definately going to enjoy building some nice looking contraptions.

Photos, more impressions, review and contraptions will soon hit this site, so stay clear – LEGO Mindstorms NXT is here!!!