Preface

The new LEGO SPIKE Prime is one of the latest additions to the LEGO robotics line of products. This book will help you to enjoy building robots and understand how exciting robotics can be in terms of design, coding, and the expression of ideas.

The book begins by taking you through a new realm of playful learning experiences designed for inventors and creators of any age. In each chapter, you'll find out how to build a creative robot, learn to bring the robot to life through code, and finally work with exercises to test what you've learned and remix the robot to suit your own unique style. Throughout the chapters, you'll build exciting new smart robots such as a handheld game, a robotic arm with a joystick, a guitar, a flying bird, a sumobot, a dragster, and a Simon Says game.

By the end of this LEGO book, you'll have gained the knowledge and skills you need to build any robot that you can imagine.

Who this book is for

This book is for robot enthusiasts, LEGO lovers, hobbyists, educators, students, and anyone looking to learn about the new LEGO SPIKE Prime kit. The book is designed to go beyond the basic builds to intermediate and advanced builds, while also helping you to learn how to add your own personal touch to the builds and code. To make the most of this book, you'll need a basic understanding of build techniques, coding in block-based software environments, and weaving them together to create unique robot builds.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Started with SPIKE Prime, focuses on the new kit and explores all the elements, sensors, components, and the coding platform that come with the kit. It is important to understand the new pieces introduced in this kit along with the sensors and how they work.

Chapter 2, Building an Industrial Robot Claw, contains our first robotic project, in which we explore how smart robots are used in everyday life. We will explore the concept of a claw and how it is used in various jobs and industries. Finally, we will build a claw that can be expanded by the user to complete various build challenges.

Chapter 3, Building a LEGO Guitar, explains that entertainment is important to our well-being. This chapter will explore how to build a working guitar that can be played and modified to meet the needs of the user.

Chapter 4, Building a Mechanical Bird, explores the mechanisms required to design and build a mechanical bird. It is designed to showcase new ways to build robots using mechanisms for wing, head, and leg movement.

Chapter 5, Building a Sumobot, covers the sumobot robotic challenge, a classic robot challenge that has been around for a long time. Despite not being a new concept, it is loved by many. This chapter contains a sumobot build to take your competitive advantage to new levels.

Chapter 6, Building a Dragster, focuses on designing and building a dragster to see how fast we can move our robot down a speedway. Robots have been playing a critical role in travel.

Chapter 7, Building a Simon Says Game, contains a very fun project for hobbyists to build and code: a handheld game of Simon Says. This chapter will explore less on the actual build mechanics; instead, more space is given to the developing code. The goal of this chapter is to increase your coding skills so you can go and create a game of your own.

To get the most out of this book

You require a basic understanding of build techniques, coding in block-based software environments, and how to weave them together to create unique robot builds.

If you are using the digital version of this book, we advise you to type the code yourself or access the code via the GitHub repository (link available in the next section). Doing so will help you avoid any potential errors related to the copying and pasting of code. The programming software can be used on computers and/or tablets/phones. You may want to explore and experiment with both platforms to find out what you prefer.

Download the example code files

You can find the code files for this book on GitHub at: https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Design-Innovative-Robots-with-LEGO-SPIKE-Prime. If there's an update to the code, it will be updated in the GitHub repository.

We have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

Code in Action

Code in Action videos for this book can be viewed at https://bit.ly/3r0qpSy.

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://static.packt-cdn.com/downloads/9781801811576_ColorImages.pdf.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: " …and select numbers 1-3."

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Add an orange control block named stop all."

Tips or important notes

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Get in touch

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