Anyone For a Game of Lego Robo-Chess?
Ever wished chess was just a little bit more exciting? How does playing with Lego robots instead of regular pieces grab you?
A team of nearly two dozen people has created a huge Lego chess set. That would be cool enough, but the pieces are also robots, and move themselves around the board. Called "Monster Chess", the set is over 150 square feet and made up of over 100,000 Lego pieces. The pieces are controlled by Lego NXTs [http://www.amazon.com/Lego-4544091-Mindstorms-NXT-2-0/dp/B001USHRYI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1276508271&sr=8-1] - programmable blocks designed with robots in mind - and moves are relayed via Bluetooth. Some pieces, like the knight and the king have additional moving parts, like the knight's legs moving or the king banging his scepter.
The video, which is a replay of a previous match, is oddly hypnotic, and it's pretty cool to see the robots get out of each other's way as they move around. The Monster Chess set will be at Brickworld [http://www.brickworld.us/bw2010/] in Chicago this weekend, so if you're in the neighborhood, you can go see it for yourself. If you want to read more about the project, including some of the more technical details, click here [http://www.teamhassenplug.org/monsterchess/] to visit the project page.
Source: The Brothers Brick [http://www.brothers-brick.com/2010/06/13/massive-chess-set-is-playing-for-keeps]
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Ever wished chess was just a little bit more exciting? How does playing with Lego robots instead of regular pieces grab you?
A team of nearly two dozen people has created a huge Lego chess set. That would be cool enough, but the pieces are also robots, and move themselves around the board. Called "Monster Chess", the set is over 150 square feet and made up of over 100,000 Lego pieces. The pieces are controlled by Lego NXTs [http://www.amazon.com/Lego-4544091-Mindstorms-NXT-2-0/dp/B001USHRYI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1276508271&sr=8-1] - programmable blocks designed with robots in mind - and moves are relayed via Bluetooth. Some pieces, like the knight and the king have additional moving parts, like the knight's legs moving or the king banging his scepter.
The video, which is a replay of a previous match, is oddly hypnotic, and it's pretty cool to see the robots get out of each other's way as they move around. The Monster Chess set will be at Brickworld [http://www.brickworld.us/bw2010/] in Chicago this weekend, so if you're in the neighborhood, you can go see it for yourself. If you want to read more about the project, including some of the more technical details, click here [http://www.teamhassenplug.org/monsterchess/] to visit the project page.
Source: The Brothers Brick [http://www.brothers-brick.com/2010/06/13/massive-chess-set-is-playing-for-keeps]
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