NICO's New shop!!

Good news, this great Lego Technic builder, featured in this blog several times  has opened his own store!

For now the only product that is available is the helicopter:

Nice and playable model, see the video bellow and check features, how to order and prices in the store

CubeStormer II

Lego Robot Beats Human World Record For Solving the Rubik’s Cube!

Solving the Rubik’s Cube puzzle popularized in the 1980s is an exercise in futility for many of us, but to a world class “speedcuber” it’s a challenge of mere moments. The currentofficial human record for the Rubik’s cube 3×3 puzzle is just 5.66 seconds. I know a robot that did it in 5.35 seconds. Take, that humanity! (Wait a second…) The puzzle solving bot is called CubeStomer II and you can watch its record breaking run in the video below. Made from Lego, powered by an Android smart phone, and created by two mad geniuses, CubeStormer II has a pedigree that sounds like it came from a children’s cartoon. That’s fitting, because I think the Lego NXT robot is a sure sign that humanity has gone meta. Why waste time on solving trivial puzzles when you can build a robot to waste time solving trivial puzzles for you instead?Both the NXT bricks and the SII smart phone feature processors made ARM, who commissioned the CubeStormer II and who will be showcasing the Lego robot at ARMTechCon 2011 in Santa Clara next week (Oct 26-27). The real geniuses behind the high speed Rubik’s robot, however, are its creators: Mike Dobson and David Gilday. Dobson built the original CubeStormer early in 2010, while Gilday has constructed several other Rubik’s solving robots that are equally impressive. These Lego lunatics are at the top of their game with the CubeStormer II. Humans competing to solve the Rubik’s Cube get to study it first before their time trial beings. Not only does CubeStormer II beat their puny human records, it doesn’t need to study! Let there be no doubt about it, robots rule Rubik’s.

CubeStormer II is controlled by four Lego NXT ‘bricks’ that communicate via Bluetooth with a Samsung Galaxy SII smart phone. A special app on the phone takes a picture of the cube, solves the puzzle virtually, and then relays the solution to the Lego robot. From click to finish the whole process takes just seconds. You have to see it to believe it:

http://singularityhub.com/2011/10/19/lego-robot-beats-human-world-record-for-solving-the-rubiks-cube/

Backhoe dredger Pinocchio by Marinus

Huge model! Very well designed and full of details.

The real thing:

"This is a model of the backhoe dredger Pinocchio, owned by the Belgian DEME Group. Equipment of this kind is used to dredge harbour bottoms, canals and the like. The soil is deposited into barges floating alongside the dredger. The floating on the water is simulated by setting up the model on 4 (yellow) columns. The most striking features of Pinocchio are the 3 spud legs and, of course, the Liebherr 996 Litronic digger. The spud legs can be lowered onto the seabed by winches. In reality the spuds can be forced into the bottom using the power of the winches, but this proved to be too much of a challenge for my model. My spuds are lowered by the winches, aided by gravity, and as soon as they touch the bottom, wires become slack. The spudwires of this model are looped over sheaves in the top of the spud legs, to make it look more realistic. Pinocchio has no propulsion of itself, and to make it move, the forward spud leg is fitted in a spud carrier, which can travel athwartships over a few meters. When the vessel is floating, the forward spud firmly into the seabed and the two other spuds raised, she can “walk” forward or aft. The Liebherr excavator is quite a monster, driven by 2 powerful V-engines and fitted on the pontoon on a flexible mounting."

Of course more information about the MOC in the Marinus blog:(highly recommended)

 Technic Brick Constructions

HERCULES

Hercules

"It's a 1:20 scale replica of the Hercules C-130J by Lockheed Martin. The C-130J Hercules is a transportation aircraft for the military. The 'J' model is an improvement from the first Hercules and the most visible improvement is the six-blade propeller. For more information about this aircraft, please visit it's official homepage at Lockheed Martins."

http://lotekbricks.blogspot.com/2001/04/hercules.html

Some precious creations

From the same author of the Truncated Octahedron, the builder Aklego has several nice Moc's that mix Technic and mathematics concepts, lovely creations, no matter if you understand it or not  ^_^ All the videos on Aklego'syoutube channel



Check the other videos!!

Short Telescopic Transmission by Sheepo

Another mechanism optimization by Sheepo, the complete article in Sheepo's Garage

LEGO GBC module : Catch and Release

Another innovation by Akiyuky, the master of lego gbc mechanical devices