Robotics Resources

Information and links to resources about robotics.

Lego Mindstorms is perhaps the easiest robotics kit to build, and is very flexible, with its own programming language. Check out O'Reilly's excellent book; the web site also has links to several Mindstorms resources. I encourage students to learn "real" programming languages, like Smalltalk or Java, and find ways to hook these languages into Mindstorms. This is a test. Check out languages such as:

• Bot-Kit - for Dolphin Smalltalk
• pbForth
• NQC - Not Quite C
• MacNQC
• LegOS

HISD's technology curriculum department is the coordinating group for robotics education activities in Houston. They host several robotics competitions throughout the school year, including the TCEA convention

• BEST Robotics and our local Space City Best
• FIRST Robotics - a very advanced competition
• First Lego League

Learning to program? Check out ToonTalk! Another excellent environment for beginners to work in (but is powerful enough for experts as well) is Squeak. You can download Squeak for free. And, for pure simplicity in a language, try Self.