LEGO.com MINDSTORMS Meet the MDP's Martyn Boogaarts

Martyn Boogaarts
From:
The Netherlands

What I do besides building with MINDSTORMS:
I'm a technical trainer on integration technology at a large software company.

Why I signed up for the MDP:
I was asked to join the MUP2 (MINDSTORMS Users Panel), back in November 2005, so here I am.

Experience with MINDSTORMS:
I started to "play" with LEGO at the age of 6, and I never let go since. In 1986 I started a "robotica" club at my school, and have built a lot of robots since. MINDSTORMS was the logical next step.

Together with a close friend Gerrit Bronsveld we where asked to build a demonstration model for a large road construction firm, so we built a "Road-Plate-Laying-Machine." From there we stepped up and created a working car factory, that builds a 42 brick car on its own. The car was designed by another friend (who is now working at the LEGO company). After that we build "The Pinball Machine."

NXT Project: Coco 5




	Coco 5 Base

First simple program
Steps:
1) Lift sensors and cam
2) Rotate 360 degrees
3) Then counter rotate with steps of 5 degrees
4) Check if something is within 50 cm (20 inch)
5) Play Sound “rader”
6) Send Bluetooth message “ AT+CKPD=":C" “ (this works with a sonyericsson)
7) Continue turn

About this NXT Project:
Coco5
The fact that I should be able to use Bluetooth, and I had a phone that also had Bluetooth triggered me to build a soort of surveillance robot. I named it Coco5. The 5 is since this is the 5th robot I designed/ built with the NXT kit, and Coco is to honor my girlfriend since that is her nickname and I really liked it, it is a short strong name.

I found a simple way of sending messages to the phone from the NXT, and right now this only works for an Sony Ericson model. I want to perfect Coco5 a bit more since now the robot is moving too quick after sending the message. Coco5 is only built with NXT parts.