Droid Works wrote:
In my opinion Vex is a remote control erector set and I would also have to lump lego in as a toy also.
I don't have any experience with Vex, but I can't agree about LEGO. The new NXT controller is amazing — built-in graphical LCD, buttons, speaker that can play synthesized or digitized sounds, ample inputs and outputs (especially if you make use of the I2C bus), a real-time multitasking operating system, and a variety of development environments (I use NXC, a C-like multithreaded language). It also comes preloaded with some very handy built-in tools, to display raw sensor readings for example.
The motors are closest to Bioloid servos: with built-in encoders, they can be used like servos or for continuous rotation. How many toys — indeed, how many "real" robots — can do this?
In addition, Steve Hassenplug has spanked many a scratch-built robot with his LEGO bots in head-to-head competitions.
The only real problem with LEGO is that the parts are pretty heavy. You certainly won't build a flying robot out of them. The motor selection is pretty limited too, and I'm not sure how much strong they are. But on the whole, it's a pretty serious robot platform.Statistics: Posted by Joe — Fri Nov 16, 2007 10:33 pm
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