The MINDdroid app is a remote control app for Lego Mindstorms. Based on the way the phone is held, the car will move forward, backward and turn by working two motors. By pressing a button on-screen, a third motor can be triggered to perform an action, like firing a weapon or working an arm.
The first thing I did was build a simple car from a Lego Mindstorms set to test the app with. A simple base that can be used for a future project I have planned. I attached the third motor to the side to test functionality, but the lack of precision control made me remove the launcher I had attempted to attach to be triggered by the motor.
The MINDdroid app turns on, connects to the Mindstorm brick then drives the Mindstorm robot. The problem with this for me is the inability to interact with a program with the MINDdroid. I’d like to be able to control something more complex, like Touristbot, but it doesn’t seem possible with the current app. It seems like I’d need to create a custom app to control a more complex robot of my own design.
The MINDdroid is a great start and concept, but not perfect for real Mindstorms robots yet. I like the potential and look forward to seeing where it goes from here.
