From: IEEE Spectrum
POSTED BY: Erico Guizzo and Stephen Cass / Mon, January 07, 2013
One of the best robotics kits is now even better. Lego is unveiling its new Mindstorms EV3 kit today at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), in Las Vegas. Check out the new features.
As in the previous set, the Mindstorms NXT, the EV3 comes with hundreds of Lego bricks, plus four motors and five sensors, including a new infrared unit that can be used as robotic eyes or to allow a robot to follow a remote control.
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the Mindstorms kit, and Lego really wanted to make the product more exciting to “an audience of children who have grown up with technology.” So the company set out to redesign the kit by making it, among other things, “more hackable,” to use Lego’s own words.
One of the biggest upgrades is the EV3 programmable brick, which now runs Linux and has a USB port and a micro SD card slot that builders can use add more capabilities to their robots. But the biggest innovation is that Lego made it easier for the EV3 brick to communicate via Bluetooth with Android and iOS apps. That means you can use a smartphone or tablet to control a Mindstorms robot or give it new behaviors.
To program your robotic creations, you can enter commands directly into the EV3 brick via its LCD or you can use the easy-to-use PC software provided. The set also includes a program that Lego created with Autodesk that shows step-by-step 3D instructions for various projects.
The EV3 set will include instructions for 17 different robots, including walking humanoids and insect-like creatures. It will sell for $350 and will be available in the second half of this year.
via ENGAGET