Several months ago, we reviewed LEGO Education’s new product, SPIKE Prime. And just a couple weeks ago, we featured news about the latest addition to the Mindstorms theme, the SPIKE-esque 51515 Robot Inventor. This new generation of programmable robotics brings bright colors and fresh ideas to the table. We’re already seeing some awesome builds coming from the education community, like this bike by the folks at Creator Academy Australia and Project Bucephalus. What’s so awesome about it? It’s self-balancing. This little guy can ride along on its own without tipping over (as long as there isn’t a wall). Click the link below to see it in action!
Watch as it scoots along all by itself. The internal gyro sensor is collecting data on when it starts to tip, and it sends that message to the motors so they can correct it. Look, Ma! No hands!
What’s even better about this whole thing is that these awesome people have provided instructions on how to build the bike! They’ve also made one showing how to program it with the easy-to-use, block-based coding software. Take a look and try it out for yourself!
While you’re here, take a peak at our Mindstorms archives! And if you want to learn more about the history of the LEGO Robotics line, I highly recommend our History of LEGO Education series, written by our very own LEGO history buff, Matt Hocker.
That’s really awesome! Bicycle/morotcycle balancing and turning is not straightforward at all, and to accomplish it with a “toy” is very impressive. I wonder if they experimented with different fork offsets and head angles to get the best handling?