"The history of LEGO Mindstorms started in the '97, with the first robotics centres in Chicago"
Ole Moller is LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Manager.
During his visit to the kids LEGO centre at Citilab, the only permanent centre in Spain, Ole explained how gaming turned into the most powerful tool of innovation
How didthe idea of doing a programmable robot built with pieces of Lego come about?
We installed the first Lego Mindstorm centres in Chicago in 1997, more than 10 years ago, and the first programme was called Robosport, actually on the same kind of playing field we have here, and it was actually half a year before our Lego retail launched the Mindstorm product, so the idea was that it was a combination of, somehow, a synergy between Lego retail and the Lego Mindstorm centres. The cooperation we had with the Science Museum in Chicago was that we should develop at least two programmes per year, so we developed the Robosport, Mission Mars, not the same as you see here, but a programme with cameras so the robot can follow some paths on the playing field, but also using a camera connected to the computer. So from '97 until today we have developed, I think more than, around 10 programmes, and two years ago we changed to the new technology from using the RCX as a microcontroller to the NXT, and for the NXT programmes we have Mission Mars, no not Mission Mars but, we have Dr. Heartbeat and we have Adventure-bot, which is our latest programme.
The Lost Treasure Quest
Adventure-bot is Indiana Jones, it’s a kind of adventure programme based on, you can say, the Indiana Jones story. So you have a robot looking for a treasure and they have to fight a dragon, no a Temple God, placed on the playing field, so it’s using the same table, using a different mat, and a different story.
Citilab, European Premiere
Actually I have seen in Barcelona the Adventure-bot and I’m proud to say that it will be the first in Europe. We have one in Dallas in the US and it will be up and running in a couple of days, where they will do the first workshops, but otherwise this will be more or less the first (place) in the world where they have an Adventure-bot.
