Nxtbot.com

Thanks to the helpful input and timely suggestions of our intrepid nxtbot.com readers, we’ve made an update to our blogroll with a host of new robotics-related sites for your perusing pleasure. We’ll continue to add links to new and interesting robotics sites on the web, so keep those suggestions coming!

There’s also been some coverage of the Mindstorms NXT launch on the web, so we thought we’d list a few of the more interesting news bits here:

ROBOT Magazine: NXT Preview
http://www.botmag.com/articles/lego_mindstorms_robot_news_1.shtml

NEWS.com: LEGO Mindstorms – No kids toy
http://news.com.com/Lego+Mindstorms+no+kids+toy/2100-1041_3-6020603.html

WIRED News: Geeks in Toyland
http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.02/lego.html

Arguably the most unusual story was sent in by a nxtbot reader (thanks Matthias!) who pointed out a link to Pasta & Vinegar describing the difficulties a robotics fan experienced when working on his gadget on a train in Germany:
http://tecfa.unige.ch/perso/staf/nova/blog/2006/02/01/be-careful-with-lego-mindstorms/
 

…to pass along any links to other compelling sites and blogs covering personal, consumer and industrial robotics. We’ve kicked off our blogroll by adding a link to Steve & Lisa Chua’s excellent nxtclub.com blog about the upcoming Mindstorms NXT.

Drop a note with your suggestions to jeff [at] nxtbot.com. Thanks!

Welcome to nxtbot.com, a new blog dedicated to providing news, interviews, features and commentary on the fast-changing world of consumer robotics. This blog is sponsored by the LEGO Company, which helped develop the consumer robotics category in 1998 with the original release of the LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Invention System (RIS).

While I’ll be taking a closer look at the upcoming Mindstorms NXT in the near future, nxtbot.com isn’t just about LEGO Mindstorms. The field of robotics has seen amazing growth over the last few years, ranging from the success of iRobot’s Roomba robot vacuum to the stalwart autonomous robotic vehicles that crossed the finish line at the DARPA Grand Challenge in 2005. We’ll touch on many facets of the consumer robotics industry here at nxtbot.com, and we’d also like to hear your observations and commentary as well.

So what’s next? Over the next day or so I’ll be prowling the halls of the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) here in Las Vegas, snapping photos of new robotics products and trying to snag as much free exhibitor food as possible.

- Jeff