Learn Engineering with LEGO® A Practical Introduction to Software, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering

This book is a hands-on introduction to the principles of engineering using the LEGO® MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor kit.

To go beyond the basic robots included in the LEGO® MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor kit, you need to make the expert choices of a professional engineer. In this hands-on introduction to the field, NASA veteran Grady Koch introduces you to real-world engineering techniques for working with motors, sensors, and software—using only the parts in the Robot Inventor kit.

You’ll build a ratchet, a tank drive vehicle, and much more as you learn how to write your own programs and algorithms with the Word Blocks and Python languages. You’ll also design mechanisms, like differentials, master engineering concepts such as gearing up and gearing down, and work with each of the kit’s sensors to create complex new models. In addition to the exercises and projects, each chapter includes detailed design instructions you can incorporate into your own inventions.

Grady Koch is the author of several books about LEGO® and creator of hightechlego.com. He has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, over 30 years of experience as a research engineer at NASA Langley Research Center, and three patents in the field of LiDAR for studying the atmosphere. He has written or contributed to over 175 conference and seminar papers, including 13 peer-reviewed journal papers as first author. Throughout his career, Koch has worked with student interns and learned how to bridge the gap between a student’s academic instruction and laboratory practice.