Hackers, Get Ready! LEGO Group Announces Open Source Firmware, Developer Kits for LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT

Consumer-directed robotics experience creation to enter “NXT” phase with open firmware, Software, Hardware and Bluetooth Developer Kits to launch in August

ENFIELD, Conn. (May 1, 2006) – The LEGO Group today announced that for the first time it will release as open source the firmware of the LEGO® MINDSTORMS® microprocessor – the new NXT brick – the core component of its next generation robotics toolset. Additionally, the company announced that it will release Software, Hardware and Bluetooth Developer Kits to its growing global audience of robotics enthusiasts. The firmware code and three developer kits will be available in August 2006 in the “Extreme” section of www.mindstorms.com, in conjunction with the retail availability of LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT.

• LEGO.com MINDSTORMS Press NXT : Open Source Announcement

“A European version of the DARPA Grand Challenge [CC] is being held in Germany next month. Instead of a race through the desert, the EU challenge is split into three events. Urban, non-urban, and landmine detection will be the ‘courses’, with multiple winners in each event. Interestingly Sebastian Thrun, winner of last year’s Challenge, has been forbidden from taking part despite being a European citizen.” From the article: “The trials will take place in and around Hammelburg, a mockup of a town used by the German military for training exercises. In the non-urban course the robots will have to contend with a one-kilometer route containing ditches, barbed wire fences, cattle guards, fires, narrow underpasses, and inclines of up to 40 degrees. The urban and landmine 500-meter trials will require the robots to negotiate doorways, stairs, partially collapsed buildings, and poor visibility from smoke or partial lighting. Along the way, they will also have to search for designated objects and report their findings back to base.”

• Slashdot | The European Grand Challenge

ABC News is running a story that self-replicating robots are no longer the stuff of science fiction. Scientists at Cornell University have created small robots that can build copies of themselves. Here is a movie demonstrating the self-replication process. And the paper that will be published in Thursdays issue of Nature.

Slashdot | Self-Replicating Robots