A Monoball Robot Based on LEGO Mindstorms [Focus on Education]

The LEGO Mindstorms kit is widely used in many areas of education and research, covering a number of applications from benchtop demonstrations to postgraduate research, laboratories, and projects [1][3]. Although the kit was initially designed as a toy for children over 12 years of age, its use in university courses is increasing yearly. The kit has attracted the interest of people working in many areas, including artificial intelligence, embedded systems, control systems, robotics, and operating systems. The LEGO Mindstorms kit is inexpensive, easily reconfigurable, reprogrammable, versatile, and robust, which makes it well suited for use in teaching [4].