Along with seeing great robots in competition at the FLL World Festival in Atlanta, Georgia last week, attendees were also able to see live demonstrations from MINDSTORMS experts.

The NXT STEP blogger Jim Kelly and The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Zoo author Fay Rhodes shared their expertise on using 3-D programs to build LEGO MINDSTORMS models, and MUP Ralph Hempel, creator of pbLua, shared his passion for Open Source and alternative programming for LEGO MINDSTORMS.

A crowd favorite was the demonstration “Taking LEGO MINDSTORMS to the Sky” given by Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of WIRED magazine. He showed off and explained his MINDSTORMS UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). Chris designed an autopilot system for a radio controlled model airplane that uses the NXT and HiTechnic Sensors to control an autopilot system, which both stabilizes and navigates the plane autonomously. A highlight for Anderson was sharing his invention with Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen (owner and Vice Chairman of LEGO) and Dean Kamen (the founder of FIRST and inventor of the Segway). He told them that he was looking to do something that had never been done with MINDSTORMS before…fly. Next stop says Chris, (for someone else) is… space?

Many of these MINDSTORMS experts are also participating in the Ask the NXTperts section of MINDSTORMS.com Have a question for them? Ask the NXTperts!Along with seeing great robots in competition at the FLL World Festival in Atlanta, Georgia last week, attendees were also able to see live demonstrations from MINDSTORMS experts.

The NXT STEP blogger Jim Kelly and The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Zoo author Fay Rhodes shared their expertise on using 3-D programs to build LEGO MINDSTORMS models, and MUP Ralph Hempel, creator of pbLua, shared his passion for Open Source and alternative programming for LEGO MINDSTORMS.

A crowd favorite was the demonstration “Taking LEGO MINDSTORMS to the Sky” given by Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of WIRED magazine. He showed off and explained his MINDSTORMS UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). Chris designed an autopilot system for a radio controlled model airplane that uses the NXT and HiTechnic Sensors to control an autopilot system, which both stabilizes and navigates the plane autonomously. A highlight for Anderson was sharing his invention with Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen (owner and Vice Chairman of LEGO) and Dean Kamen (the founder of FIRST and inventor of the Segway). He told them that he was looking to do something that had never been done with MINDSTORMS before…fly. Next stop says Chris, (for someone else) is… space?

Many of these MINDSTORMS experts are also participating in the Ask the NXTperts section of MINDSTORMS.com Have a question for them? Ask the NXTperts!