Alex Lowe on Software and Startups

Interested in robotics? Brian Peek has published an article about using Microsoft Robotics Studio with the Lego Mindstorms NXT kit. This is a great combination for an introduction to robotics for hobbyists or students. This is very similar to a system used by the Females In Science Club that I tutored in programming for the NASA robotics competition they competed in.

I’ve taught many technology classes from elementary kids to high schools students to senior citizens. I’ve taught Internet classes, programming, robotics, computer repair, and general use. Robotics is a great fusion of disciplines from software and hardware. It also provides an entertaining and interactive mechanism for education. If you want to teach or learn technology, for your, your kids, or your class, this is a great starting point.

Robotics Studio has an added benefit of supporting Microsoft Visual Programming Language which provides a graphical environment for creating procedural commands for the robotic control. This is an ideal way to lower the barrier of entry into technology, software, and robotics as it is much simpler than the terse text code that programmers write.

Software is very intangible and can be pretty uninteresting on it’s own. But combined with a physical medium, such as robotics, software can “come alive.” Microsoft and Lego have a great package for the introduction to robotics, and this kit can let you build some other pretty cool things!