I, robot? My robot!

With Lego's new kit, you, too, can play God with a mechanical creature of your own design.

By Janelle Brown

Oct 2, 1998 | Meet Oscar, my robot. As robots go, he's pretty useless: He knows how to turn around when he bumps into an object. He beeps when he sees a light (sometimes), and he can do a little back-and-forth dance. That's it. For that matter, he falls apart on a pretty regular basis. Any seventh grader could probably do better. But hey, he's mine, and I'm proud.

Oscar is just one of millions of robot spawn made possible by Lego Mindstorms. Lego Mindstorms, in case you've missed the buzz, is the brand new "Robotics Invention System" from the world's most beloved producer of plastic blocks. It's hard to believe that Lego -- perhaps the most perfect toy for inventive children -- could be improved upon, but the company has managed to do so: Instead of just building Lego creatures, children ages 11 and up can now build Lego creatures that actually do things.

Most people to whom I mentioned the Mindstorms system had the same wistful response: "I wish I'd had that when I was a kid." But Mindstorms isn't just for kids. It's an addictive and compulsive programming system that will keep an adult entertained and frustrated for weeks.

The $200 Mindstorms system is built around the RCX programmable microcomputer -- a giant yellow Lego that downloads programs created on your computer. The RCX serves as the base of your robot and controls a variety of included attachments: a light sensor, two touch sensors, and two motors. Using these components, and 727 parts (Mindstorms is also compatible with other Lego toys), you can build an infinite variety of mobile robots. There are also three available expansion kits -- RoboSports (robots that play ball), Extreme Creatures (strange animals) and Exploration Mars (build a camera-controlled rover).

Actual programming of the robot takes place on your PC (sorry, no Mac version available) using "RCX Code," an object-oriented programming system that links command blocks. To make a robot that reverses direction when it bumps something, for example, you select a green "reverse direction" block and connect it to the red "touch sensor watcher." Most of the command blocks are simplistic (go, stop, change direction, pause, beep, repeat), but they can produce relatively complex sets of behaviors when used in the right order with a well-built Lego robot. You can, for example, build belt drives, mechanical arms, walking robots and alarm systems.

It is a beautiful but simple system -- truly, programming for dummies. But there's still a steep learning curve. The instructions brag that a child can build a working robot within an hour of breaking open the box; this is a bit optimistic. Take, for example, the process that I went through from box-opening to completing Oscar -- keeping in mind that I am no technical genius, have never written program code and am still baffled by the workings of the innards of my car.

Next Page: One day in the life of a robot and his creator

• View blog reactions