The LEGO BOOST Activity Book

The LEGO BOOST Activity Book

A Beginner's Guide to Robotics
by Daniele Benedettelli
November 2018, 272 pp.
ISBN-13: 
978-1-59327-932-5
Full color

"It is hard to believe there is so much stuff in this one book, but there is. One way that happens is the subtle but measurable increase in format for this volume compared to other coding and STEM books by this and other publishers." —Greg Laden

"This book is the perfect way get more from LEGO BOOST Creative Toolbox." —BricksFanz


Download Chapter 1: Your LEGO BOOST Creative Toolbox

Check back for video instructions on the author's site!

Download parts list

The LEGO BOOST kit lets younger builders create fun, multifunctional robots by combining bricks with code, but it doesn’t come with a manual. With the help of this complete guide to the LEGO BOOST set, you’ll be on your way to building and programming BOOST robots in no time.

You’ll begin your exploration by building a basic rover robot called MARIO to help you learn the fundamentals of the BOOST programming environment. Next, you’ll add features to your rover to control its movement and make it repeat actions and react to colors and sounds. Once you’ve learned some programming basics, you’ll learn how to program your robot to do things like follow lines on the ground, scan its environment to decide where to go, and even play darts. As final projects, you’ll create two complete robots: BrickPecker to help you organize your bricks and CYBOT, a robot that talks, shoots objects, and executes voice commands.

As you advance through the book, optional lessons aim to deepen your understanding of basic robotics concepts. Brain BOOSter sections let you dig into the math and engineering behind your builds while a host of experiments seek to test your skills and encourage you to do more with your robots. With countless illustrations, extensive explanations, and a wealth of coding examples to guide you, The LEGO BOOST Activity Book is sure to take you from beginning builder to robotics whiz and give your robot-building brain that needed boost!

Look Inside!
Author Bio 

Daniele Benedettelli is known worldwide for his original LEGO robots, including his Rubik's Cube solvers and his humanoid robots. As a LEGO MINDSTORMS Community Partner (MCP), he helps to test and develop new MINDSTORMS products. He gives educational presentations and workshops on Information and Communications Technology around the world and teaches robotics at the high school level. Benedettelli holds a master's degree in Robotics and Automation from the University of Siena in Italy.

Table of contents 

Introduction

Part I: Programming Basics

Chapter 1: Your LEGO BOOST Creative Toolbox
Chapter 2: It's Me, MARIO!
Chapter 3: Getting Around with Motor Blocks
Chapter 4: Moving your Robot Precisely
Chapter 5: Repeating Actions with Loops
Chapter 6: "Hi, I'm an explorer!"
Chapter 7: Detecting Colors

Part II: Intermediate Techniques

Chapter 8: A Line-Following Robot
Chapter 9: Following Walls
Chapter 10: A Voice-Activated Robot
Chapter 11: Taking a Look Around
Chapter 12: Playing Darts
Chapter 13: Building Techniques

Part III: BrickPecker

Chapter 14: BrickPecker, a Brick-Sorting Bird
Chapter 15: Programming BrickPecker

Part IV: CYBOT

Chapter 16: Building CYBOT
Chapter 17: Programming CYBOT

Experiment Answer Key
Index

Reviews 

"It is hard to believe there is so much stuff in this one book, but there is. One way that happens is the subtle but measurable increase in format for this volume compared to other coding and STEM books by this and other publishers." —Greg Laden

"This book is the perfect way get more from LEGO BOOST Creative Toolbox." —BricksFanz

Updates 

Pages xi and 72: heading "improving line-following with Switch blocks" should now read "improving line-following with two Switch blocks"

Pages xiv and 192: heading "the Brick-Sorting Bird program" should now read "the brick-sorting program"

Page 30: Line "In Chapter 4, you’ll learn how to tell a robot to drive for a precise distance, turn by a precise number of degrees, and repeat actions." should now read "In Chapter 4, you’ll learn how to tell a robot to drive for a precise distance, turn by a precise number of degrees."

On page 39, all instances of 360/pi have been changed to pi/360 in the Brain BOOSTer box.

On page 62, in Figure 7-2, steering input values 100 and -100 have been swapped.

In Figure 8-12 of the ebook versions, B and C appear double-printed. This exists only in the online PDF and ebooks.

Page 84: In the Note, the line "This means that both sequences can never run at the same time." should now read "This means that both sequences can never run at the same time, , thus preventing the conflict described on page 51."

On page 131, in Figure 12-10, wingding 8 is missing and an icon on a block has been corrected.

In Chapter 12, the Stop c-block and Shoot c-block explanations were omitted. These have been added beginning on page 132.

On pages 241-243, the solutions for experiments 8-3, 8-5, and 10-1 have been corrected.