The Unofficial LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Inventor's Guide at Dominant Systems Book Store

The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT set includes a variety of powerful electronic parts (motors, sensors, and the programmable NXT microcomputer) and lots of building elements. With these parts you can create thousands of unique, intelligent robots. The Unofficial LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Inventor's Guide helps you to harness the capabilities of the NXT set and effectively plan, build, and program your own NXT robots.

The first part of the book contains a brief introduction to the NXT set. You'll then examine the pieces in the NXT set and the roles they play in construction. Next, you'll learn practical building techniques, like how to build sturdy structures and work with gears. Then it's time to learn how to program with the official NXT-G programming language (and learn a bit about several unofficial programming languages). You'll also learn what author David J. Perdue calls the MINDSTORMS method: a strategy for creating your own robots. Finally, you'll follow step-by-step instructions for building, programming, and testing six sample robots (all of which can be built using only the parts found in one NXT set). These six robots include:

Zippy-Bot, a two-wheeled vehicle with a ball caster
Bumper-Bot, a version of Zippy-Bot that explores your room and avoids objects
Claw-Bot, a version of Zippy-Bot that searches for objects and pushes them away with its claw
Tag-Bot, a four-wheeled steering vehicle that dashes around while you try to "tag" it with a flashlight
Guard-Bot, a six-legged walking robot that launches a ball at intruders
Golf-Bot, a stationary robot that finds a target and then hits a ball into the target

You'll also find an NXT-G Quick Reference, which provides information on the 30 types of standard programming blocks, and the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Piece Library, which features detailed information and images of the more than 80 types of LEGO pieces in the NXT set.

So go ahead. Grab your NXT set, fire up your creative mind, and see what you can invent with The Unofficial LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Inventor's Guide.

Customer Reviews & Comments
As a father with two boys who are both interested in science and technology, it seemed a natural choice to check out the LEGO Mindstorms NXT set when it came out. Stepper motors with integrated rotation sensors, sensors for ultrasound, touch, light, and sound, USB and Bluetooth connectivity... well, you get the point! When my boys saw the NXT, they were very excited about it. When the box arrived it was like Christmas and birthday combined! We built the model in the book first. A fun start. Then we built the models included on the CD. Very nice! After that though, we were on our own. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but our skills could only take us so far! Fortunately there's an abundance of books about Mindstorms. We're up to five books at this point, and I'm always looking for more. It's not just the models, but also the insight on mechanical design and the new ways of looking at the available pieces. Each book takes a different approach to introducing the models and creating excitement, but unfortunately not all are as effective as others. The newest book that we have in our collection is The Unofficial LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Inventor's Guide, by David J. Perdue. The cover model grabbed me immediately with its interesting steering design. The book itself begins with some very good beginner-level information on the Mindstorms set. If you've only read the documentation included with the set, this is very useful. It includes information on the sensors and motors, the Lego beams and pieces, and the software. From there it moves into a great discussion of working with gears. One could argue that this isn't information that is necessary if all you want to do is build robots, but it's the same philosophy as teaching a man to fish versus giving him a fish. The plans that come later in the book are more useful when you have a solid foundation of construction concepts. The next three chapters focus on programming -- a basic then advanced chapter covers the programming environment, the various blocks, and how they all fit together. A third chapter moves beyond into unsupported languages. If you are looking to move beyond the LabView toolset, this is good information, but definitely only appropriate for an advanced audience. Chapter 11 (page 125) begins the first build-it-yourself project. This means that roughly half of the book is background on Mindstorms, and the other half contains the six projects. The projects are good and include ample illustration and commentary. This is important because just seeing the sequence of construction steps isn't very helpful if you really want to understand it -- and, ideally, continue with your own projects. Unlike some books which rely on photos of the build sequence, Mr. Perdue uses LDraw to create professional-looking steps that look like the ones put out by the Lego company. The programs are laid out with comments next to the blocks. This is nice to see as it sets a good example for budding programmers. There's also sidebar commentary to go into greater detail. The book includes a good variety of basic and advanced programming blocks. Using data wires, variables, math operations, and ranges opens up the door to logic that is more true-to-life -- hopefully without being intimidating to younger readers (my sons are 10 and 12). One small quibble is that many of the programs are rotated sideways. This is a somewhat necessary approach since the programs get so darned wide! LabView needed to come up with a better way to visualize large programs. For the printed form, it might have worked better to make multi-page pull-out diagrams instead. It's not a big thing, but it did stand out. Overall I really liked the book. It's a bit scant on the building plans for my own needs, but it really depends on what you are looking for. It's also inline with other similar books. For someone without so many books already in their library (as I have), having a good mix of plans and background is important. Lego did a great job of creating a robotics platform with incredible potential, but largely left it up to the community to realize that potential. Most of the books that I have attempt to bridge this gap by dividing up the book this way, but with varying degrees of success. I was very pleased with the approach taken by this book, the diagrams/illustrations, and the overall tone taken. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to take their Mindstorms experience further.

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