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Pick up your NXT 2.0 set and flip it so you can see the back side. On the left you'll find two very small robots, one of which is the Manty that you see on this page.
It's one of the official MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 bonus models.
Manty is a shy animal robot that walks around happily until it sees something. When it does, it lowers its head and turns away to start walking (cheerfully) in a new direction.
This page will tell you some more about the Manty and its design, and it has links to both building and programming instructions for this robot.
About the design
As part of the Junior MINDSTORMS Developer program, I was given the opportunity to get a look at the parts in the NXT 2.0 kit in an early stage. With the inventory list in my pocket,
I selected the required parts from the older NXT and other TECHNIC sets. I didn't have each of the NXT 2.0 parts at the time, but I had enough to do some building. Manty was the direct
result of prototyping with this set. Initially, the goal was just to to create a walking robot that would walk well. To achieve this, I recreated a walking robot that I designed
previously, but which was never shown on the web.
After it was able to walk around properly, I started making it look better aestheticly. I wanted to give this little animal a name -
and since it walks on six legs, I figured it would just have to be an insect. With that in mind, I looked around on the web for an insect with a long neck. A Praying Mantis was the
most similar insect that I could find. And, since the animal appears to be a little shy (it turns away when it sees you), I called it Manty: the Shy Mantis.
More pictures |
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If you look at the picture on the right, you'll see a Touch Sensor mounted at the bottom of Manty. This sensors enables Manty to synchronize its legs.
Think of it this way - imagine your two legs were positioned parallel to another. If one moves forwards, the other one would have to do so, too. That would make it impossible
to walk. This is exactly the same for manty. Therefore, the legs on both sides of Manty (they're identical) should be half a step apart. The video illustrates why this is necessary,
and how the synchronization is accomplished.
Building instructions |
