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Robotics Home - Engineering Book - Mechanical Engineering - Robotics: 
Extreme Mindstorms: an Advanced Guide to Lego Mindstormsby Dave Baum (Editor), Michael Gasperi, Ralph Hempel, Luis Villa, David Baum Paperback: 347 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.89 x 9.28 x 7.41 Publisher: APress; ; 1st edition (October 2000) ISBN: 1893115844 Check price @ amazon.com , amazon.ca , amazon.co.uk Book Description: The sequel to Baum's best-selling and highly praised earlier book Dave Baum's Definitive Guide to Lego Mindstorms, this book is designed to take the experienced user of Mindstorms to the next level. Baum brought together a dream team of some of the best-known people in the Mindstorms community to create this book. Extreme Mindstorms is for LEGO MINDSTORMS enthusiasts of all ages who are interested in special projects and new programming methods that go beyond what is covered in Dave Baum's best selling book. Through the construction and programming of a demonstration robot, readers will learn advanced MINDSTORMS construction and programming techniques. Each author has written a section of the book based on that author's specialty. Dave Baum is the creator of NQC and Ralph Hempel is the creator of pbForth. Luis Villa has maintained an extensive collection of information on legOS, and Gasperi is the authority on constructing custom Mindstorms sensors. Although numer! ous projects are presented with simple systematic instructions, and though the topics covered are advanced, readers should be able to assemble the projects and understand how they work without any prior knowledge of electronics. - The authors are widely regarded as among the leading gurus for serious Mindstorms development. - Contains unique information available nowhere else on such topics as sensor development, pbForth, and legOS. - Provides advanced sample projects with simple step-by-step instructions. Book Info: A guide for professional and expert users of LEGO MINDSTORMS to its more advanced use. Teaches how to take advantage of the three most common advanced developments, NQC, pbForth, and legOS. Also shows how to build custom sensors to greatly extend the out-of-box experience provided by the standard parts available, as well as many other features. Softcover. About the Author: Dave Baum is a Principal Staff Engineer at Motorola. With the advent of LEGO MINDSTORMS, Baum was able to combine two of his favorite pastimes: programming and building with LEGO. He then developed Not Quite C (NQC), a powerful language for programming MINDSTORMS robots that has been widely accepted by advanced users. For more information about NQC or to download the program, visit the author's Web site. Michael Gasperi works as a Principal Engineer with the Advanced Technology division of Rockwell Automation. He became involved with homebuilding custom sensors for LEGO MINDSTORMS shortly after it was introduced in 1997. Since then his web site has become the central depository for sensor ideas and plans. During his 22 years of experience as a professional engineer he has developed many industrial electronic products as well as published hobbyist articles in the fields of model rocketry, amateur radio, pinhole photography and crystal radio. Ralph Hempel is a professional engineer who specializes in embedded systems design. Ralph holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo. LEGO had been a part of Ralph's life since the late 1960s, but when he bought a set for his son Owen in 1997, the flame was rekindled. Besides building original Technic and Town models with his family, Ralph enjoys snowboarding, mountain biking, and playing blues harmonica. Luis Villa is an undergraduate at Duke University studying Computer Science. He rediscovered Lego and became an expert in legOS while preparing to become a Teacher's Assistant for a Duke course that used LEGO Mindstorms. Luis writes and maintains the legOS HOWTO website. Besides maintaining the legOS HOWTO, Luis spends his spare time studying political theory and attending lots of Blue Devil basketball games. Customer Reviews Even better than it predecesor, February 4, 2002 Reviewer: Francisco J. Perea from Cerro Muriano, Cordoba Spain If Definitive Guide was wonderful this one is even better. These guys have done a good work with the book. Special mention to Gasperi's Homebrew Sensors section. One of my library's jewels Extreme Mindstorms ... Extremely Excellent, February 24, 2001 Reviewer: Glenn R. Kelly from Trevor, Wisconsin USA Want to take your Mindstorms creations to new hieghts? Go beyond RIS? The ya have to get this book, a follow up to Dave Baum's Definitive Guide to Lego Mindstorms. You will not only see more NQC programming, but pbForth as well, and an excellent section on constructing your own sensors. If your the kid who doesn't grow up, an engineer at heart, and the owner of more than one RIS set because you are obssessed with Lego Mindstorms, then you cannot do without adding this book to your collection. Good and not too extreme, November 27, 2000 Reviewer: Monica Stewart from Seattle, WA USA I don't know if I like the "Extreme" in the title. In many ways this book just covers the basics. In some ways I like this book better than Baum's "Defintive Guide to LEGO Mindstorms", because it's not so NQC centric. In other ways I prefer the DGLM because it had more info on structural issues. There is a knack to making good LEGO structures, and a few tips really come in handy. I would have to say that I find the DGLM more extreme as far as the variety and originality of the projects. this is not for kids, November 21, 2000 Reviewer: staylor129 from Wantagh, NY United States i work with c and assembler, also i work with maya and 3d studio max on the graphics end. black belt in all of those fields. this book is bringing me to my white belt to black belt knowledge in robotics.dont think buy. Great Book!, November 9, 2000 Reviewer: v_thunder from Durham, NC United States I recommend this book to anyone who wants to do some serious programming with the Lego Mindstorms kit. The four authors are experts in different areas like LegOS, NQC, pbForth, and even on making your own sensors for the robot. The illustrations are very well done and make building the robots a simple task. The programming examples are very clear, and easy to follow, yet still fun to do. I particularly like the variety of the book. There are many projects, and they illustrate different features of the robots and the different programming envorinments. On the desktop side, it has examples on getting the system working on several platforms, like Linux, or Microsoft Windows. This is most certainly the best advanced Lego Mindstorms book you'll find, and at a great price, too. |
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