A review of Lego Mindstorms robotics platform for educational and research applications

Abstract

Nowadays, robotics is considered one of the main areas of interest in science and technology. In almost all sectors of the society we encounter the robotization, i.e., automated systems. In industry, robots are used for welding, transporting, assembling and painting pieces. In medicine, sophisticated robots help to conduct complex surgeries. In the military sector, robots are used to explore hostile areas. Therefore, mobile robotics and autonomous systems are topics of growing interest in Computer Science and Engineering careers. Therefore, in this paper we present a review of the main characteristics of the LEGO Mindstorms robots, examining the development environments available for compiling software programs that help to define the robot behavior. In addition, an analysis is carried out of success cases using NXT robots in university courses, as well as its use in research prototypes.