Boris Smus

A few projects around the internet use an Android phone to control the LEGO Mindstorms NXT brick. Most involve an ugly hack in which the phone communicates with a computer over WiFi, and the computer (paired to the NXT through bluetooth) submits the command to the brick. These projects typically use Android as a remote control for the NXT robot, and not as part of the robot itself. Here is a missed opportunity: the NXT could be augmented by an impressive list of sensors, GPS and Internet access provided by an Android phone.
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In anticipation of 48-739: Making Things Interactive, I’ve been itching to build something interesting. I decided to create a printing plotter out of my brother’s Mindstorms set. There are already many excellent plotter designs floating around in the Mindstorms community, so I decided to try something new. Plotters typically draw straight, edge-aligned lines, since they have a caret motor which travels along the x-axis and a feed motor which aligns along the y-axis. There are many variations on this theme.

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After several weeks of casual spare-time research and implementation, I’ve finally built a fully working piano playback robot. The usage is simple: someone plays or sings an arbitrary monophonic melody, and the robot, parked on a piano bench, will play it back.

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