Lisa Siregar

The default model of a Mindstorm set.

Indonesia Experiencing Robots By Way of Lego

Elaborate scenes made entirely from Lego bricks fill the Mikrobot Experience Center at Crystal Lagoon, Senayan City. Among the many tableaus: a tree outside a fire station complete with a forlorn kitty stuck in its branches; and outside a police station set, a helicopter is suspended by a string.

“In our session [for children], we usually explain [social roles] through story telling,” said Kendra, a public relations officer for Mikrobot.

However, on a smaller display rack, Lego has taken child’s play to a new level, with robots in the form of cars, guns and tanks. Each is equipped with a white, palm-sized box, or an “intelligence brick.” Each brick, costing about Rp 4 million ($425) apiece, includes an ultrasonic sensor, sound sensor and interactive motor, and is known as Mindstorm.

Although Lego has long captured the hearts of children with its Star Wars and City series, it is now focusing on the teen and young adult market with Mindstorm, hoping to attract those interested in making robots.

“It’s harder for children to understand programming, although it is possible,” Kendra said. And enthusiasm for the product seems to be on a roll — last week’s performance by Mikrobot’s Medan team saw the junior high students claiming second and third places at the World Robotic Olympiad International Event in South Korea.

In Jakarta, two international schools — the Jakarta International School and Raffles International Christian School — have signed students up to take robot lessons as an extra curricular activity.

As the only authorized distributor of Lego Education, the Mikrobot center also provides assistance to buyers building their robot. The Mindstorm is one of many products by Lego Education, a branch of the Lego company, which, Kendra said, “doesn’t aim to follow the trends, but aims to develop retail products for educational purposes.”

The Mindstorm allows the robot to move and respond, and according to Kendra, it is possible for programmers to combine commands with the universal programming language, Visual Basic.

“One thing I like about Lego, they focus on what they are good at, which is making good-quality plastic bricks and arranging partnerships with credible companies to create additional equipment to develop their product,” Kendra said.

The software to operate Mindstorm is developed by National Instruments, the company who created the satellite program for NASA.

As a basic set to create a robot, it is only with additional Lego bricks (to be bought separately) that owners can turn the default model of Mindstorm into something else. However, with Lego bricks, it is always possible to take everything apart and create a new robot.

“Here, we usually display a robot for three months before we take everything apart and create a new one,” Kendra said.

He picked up a tank-shaped robot and placed it on the floor, then pressed a button on a remote. The robot buzzed and moved slowly forward.

“It can overcome an obstacle. Look!” Kendra put his foot in front of the tank. The robot slowly lifted its “hands” to reach for Kendra’s foot and kept its balance. Even when rolled upside down, the robot was able to right itself.

One of the most remarkable creations by the Mikrobot center is the Rubik’s cube solver, which won the Golden Award in the World Robotic Olympiad International Event in 2007. The robot was able to solve a Rubik’s cube in one minute, and after the competition, the team further developed the robot to solve the puzzle in 47 seconds.

At the moment, Mikrobot is developing a chess playing robot. Kendra said the company often takes inspiration from everyday life, and one of their robots is programmed to hand out brochures at exhibitions.

This year, the company released an advanced version of Mindstorm called Legotetrix, which has all the qualities of Mindstorm, but comes in solid aluminum, making it stronger and more powerful.

“This is the kind of thing that is being used in universities, such as ITS [Surabaya Institute of Technology],” he said, adding that it is durable enough to be used for research outdoors.

So far, the Mikrobot center has about 60 members registered and the headquarters are usually crowded with teenage boys on weekends.

The center has a 90-minute introductory session for newbies, which costs Rp 150,000 and includes use of a Mindstorm and a computer.

Members can sign up for a robot-making project at the same price, or pay Rp 8 million for annual membership.

“Here we practice the philosophy of Lego Education: the active learning and learning by making,” Kendra said.

Mikrobot Experience Center
Senayan City, Crystal Lagoon
Jl. Asia Afrika, Jakarta
Phone: 021 7278 1087
Email: support@mikrobot.com

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