Lego Mindstorms EV3

Generation 2

Generation 1

Generation 3

Generation 4

15 years ago the first Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention System was released. You could put together motorized creations that can be programmed to do what you want. The online Mindstorms community has more than 17,000 different designs. On September 1st the most recently upgraded Mindstorms kit will be released. The EV3. The price will be $350. 594 pieces.

UPGRADES

1. Intelligence Upgrade

The "heart" of the new EV3 is an upgraded advanced processing brick. The 300 megahertz processor runs 10 times faster then the previous one from Mindstorms 2.0. The new brick can now monitor more sensors spontaneously. Because the system also has 64 megabytes of RAM, the response time of the brick is much quicker. Also, the brick has 16 megabytes of storage.

2. Sensor Upgrade
The EV3 robots can now navigate independently.
Designers added an infrared proximity sensor in the eyes (ultrasonic sensor) so that the robots can follow things, attack, or run away from something.

3. Motor Upgrade
Each Mindstorms set comes with 3 motors. Two big ones (170 rpm) with double-sided output drives and the two sides can do different things. The third motor is smaller and rotates at 250 rpm and is used for firing small little red balls or "flicking fingers".

4. Control Upgrade
The heart of the EV3 has a bluetooth radios letting you control and program your robot through an iOS or Android app. You can also connect a WiFi radio by a USB port on the processing brick.

5. Expansion Upgrade
For complex, large creations, you can connect four processing bricks together and the one "master" brick can send commands to the other bricks like "pinch together a thumb and forefinger"



I think this new set is pretty cool. I have the Mindstorms 2.0 and I there were a lot of major improvements like the remote control and faster motors. The Mindstorms EV3 has a lot of things that the previous Mindstorms sets didn't have.