LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT: The Mayan Adventure (Technology in Action)
by James Floyd Kelly
List Price:
Our Price: $10.99
You Save: $14.00 (56%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: James Floyd KellyEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-12-12
ISBN: 159059763X
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Apress
Accessories:
- Outlook 2007: Beyond the Manual (Books for Professionals by Professionals)
- SharePoint 2007 User's Guide: Learning Microsoft's Collaboration and Productivity Platform
Book Reviews of LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT: The Mayan Adventure (Technology in Action)
Book Review: Exploring The Mayan Adventure with NXT
Summary: 5 Stars
If it was possible to give this book 10 stars, I would not hesitate to do so. The stories about Evan and Uncle Philip with his team exploring the Mayan pyramid surely touch a childs imagination (I am 46 and even I am floating away with Evan beating the intellect of those adults in the team). On the technical side, this book really shines. I bought my first NXT set early december 2006. But beside the standard robot instrucions include, I feeled that I did not understand perfectly. With RCX I used NQC as programming language. But I am not used to the graphical interface of Lego. Jim Kelly made a very nice addition in this field. His explanations have just enough detail which make them easy to follow.
When it comes to construct those robots, there is very much room for your own creativity and ideas. There is only one minor flaw, those photographs should be in color even when the price of the book raises. This book really deserves color photographs. But even in black and white, those photographs are easy to follow.
The book in general encourages you to explore your own mind when you design your robots. There are many possible ways to build the same robot. Don't just copy the robots from the book. Use your imagination and make your own changes.
Also the robot construction journals are very helpfull when planning and building a robot. Design your own journals based onto those inside the book will keep the book intact. Those journals give you a way to structure the robot creation process. There is more to this process than constructing, programming and testing. The more you structure your mind the better, and those journals helps you with this.
I have one remark at the Explorobot. Since the writing of this book (and this is no way a shortcoming or negative) HiTechnic constructed a lot of interesting sensors like a Compass and a Gyro sensor. The compass sensor is available, the gyro not on this moment. If you can you should buy a compass sensor from HiTechnic which makes your eploration much more accurate. As an example :
You know from the map that those corners are 90°. So when you start of toward the first corner, measure the direction.
Then when you reach the first corner make rotation of "your initial direction" minus 90°.
Then you go straight to the next corner.
When you constantly measure your direction, you can prevent friction loss causes deviation from the optimal path to follow.
This is a little detail which makes your pyramid exploration much more real. Your not assuming you follow a straight path but you ARE following a straight path unesteemed one wheel feels more or less resistance than the other.
Sorry that I am deviating a little from the main subject but I feel that the author has a very important field here unexploited. I admit it was impossible to include the compass sensor in the book because the correct decision was made to use only parts included in the standard NXT set.
But maybe it is possible to setup an accompanion website at which such topics are explaned. And because the author is encouraging his audience to send photos of their creation, maybe those can find a place on the website also. A website can much more easily updated than a book.
As a conclusion this is a great book for both adults and children interested in Robotics. It shows clearly how robotics can serve in solving daily life situations. And surely it will teach you the basics of robotics after which you can go on designing your own creations.
Friendly greetings,
Bad_Wolf
Belgium
Europe
Summary of LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT: The Mayan Adventure (Technology in Action)
We are planning at least three books for NXT. This one, The Mayan Adventure, is for children 10 to 15 years old, which is the largest market for the NXT robotic system. Because NXT is also attracts high school students and adults, our other two books will target that audience.
This book tells the story of a team of archeologists that occasionally runs into difficulties and designs its NXT robot to overcome them. Although the book does reveal possible solutions, readers are encouraged to come up with their own and worksheets are provided where they can brainstorm.
Video Games Books
- Books > Subjects > Computers & Technology > Games & Strategy Guides
- Programming > Software Design, Testing & Engineering > Software Development
- Humor & Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Video & Electronic Games
- Professional & Technical > Engineering
- New & Used Textbooks > Computer Science > Software Design & Engineering
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Similar Books and other products
Building Robots with LEGO Mindstorms NXTby Mario Ferrari, Guilio Ferrari
Syngress; Published: 2007-06-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.58
Price in other shops:
LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT One-Kit Wonders: Ten Inventions to Spark Your Imaginationby James Floyd Kelly, Matthias Paul Scholz, Christopher R. Smith, Martijn Boogaarts, Jonathan Daudelin, Eric D. Burdo, Laurens Valk, BlueTooth Kiwi
No Starch Press; Published: 2008-11-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.57
Price in other shops:
First LEGO League: The Unofficial Guideby James Floyd Kelly, Jonathan Daudelin
No Starch Press; Published: 2008-08-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.47
Price in other shops:
Creating Cool MINDSTORMS NXT Robots (Technology in Action)by Daniele Benedettelli
Apress; Published: 2008-04-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.50
Price in other shops:
The Art of LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT-G Programmingby Terry Griffin
No Starch Press; Published: 2010-09-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.54
Price in other shops:
Winning Design!: LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Design Patterns for Fun and Competitionby James Jeffrey Trobaugh
Apress; Published: 2010-12-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.80
Price in other shops:
LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0: The King?s Treasure (Technology in Action)by James Floyd Kelly
Apress; Published: 2009-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.00
Price in other shops:
The Unofficial LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 Inventor's Guideby David J. Perdue, Laurens Valk
No Starch Press; Published: 2010-12-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.00
Price in other shops:
LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 (8547)LEGO; LEGO; Toy
Best price: $256.99
Price in other shops:
The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 Discovery Book: A Beginner's Guide to Building and Programming Robotsby Laurens Valk
No Starch Press; Published: 2010-05-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.99
Price in other shops: