Book Review ➟ Mastering LEGO MINDSTORMS
There's more to learning LEGO MINDSTORMS than a basic understanding of word blocks - the scratch-based programming language used by LEGO in its latest MINDSTORMS interface. The power of this generation of LEGO robots is the possibility to not only program them using a visual programming language, but also to be able to natively program them using Python - a text-based programming language. Not only does Python allow for more advanced code, but it is also a great stepping-stone towards other programming uses since python is widely used in many different applications.
Mastering LEGO MINDSTORMS - Cover.
LEGO MINDSTORMS - Build Better Robots with Python and Word Blocks (by Barbara Bratzel and Robo Torok) is a continuation of LEGO MINDSTORMS - Learning the basics of Building and Programming Robots and sets out to teach you the basics of Python. The book follows the same essential structure: each chapter introduces a specific concept which it explains in easy-to-follow language. Each block of explanations is followed by a "try this" box which sets a challenge and provides a sample solution. At the end of each chapter, you will also find suggestions for projects to (build and) program.
Each explanation is followed by a Try This section.
The book doesn't just teach you Python. Chapter 5 is dedicated to a basic explanation of the use of gears and mechanisms. The book doesn't provide any ready-made building instructions for cool robots or mechanisms. Rather, it explains the underlying principles in such a way that you can implement them in a robot of your own creation. Even so, the images in this chapter are simple and clear enough to be able to reproduce the builds without much difficulty.
Starting from chapter 6, which discusses the use of the gyro sensor - a concept that isn't covered in the first book - this book provides example code both in word blocks and in python, allowing you to choose which programming language to use, and to learn by comparing how the two languages relate to each other. A detailed consideration of line following and game design round of this part of the book.
Sample of Python and Word Block code compared.
The final two chapters are dedicated to helping you find inspiration to put everything you have learned so far into practice. Pictures of sample solutions as well as word block and python code to het you started are provided.
There are project ideas to put your programing skills to use.
In just 120 pages, this book provides you all the tools to feel comfortable programming in Python and tackling more complex tasks in word blocks as well. Once you finish the book you will be ready to build and program more advanced robots with confidence.
I would like to thank nostarch for providing a review copy of this book.
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