Building Instructions

"How do you build a forklift using only gear wheels and levers without a rake"... Ok, we would admit that is a difficult question. It even sounds difficult. So let's start with something easy. A LEGO Mindstorms EV3 robot. It lifts objects in the air. It uses two gear wheels that work together and then move in different directions and are placed perpendicular to each other... This sentence kind of got difficult again... Let me try again.

Follow the building instructions with these 70+ steps and you will have a very nice robot and you will learn a simple trick of how to use gears and change the directions in which they rotate. 

The new Spy is a robot with tank treads, which uses one medium motor to turn three things at once. That is achieved by a gear system. Simultaneously the robot turns its two hands up and down, but in opposite directions and its head - left and right.

The robot moves with the help of two tank treads, attached to two Large EV3 Motors.

We love tanks. You love tanks. Everybody loves tanks. Well, not exactly - more like everybody loves machines with chain treads because they are interesting, not that common, very easy to build and could tackle a lot of obstacles.

This is a simple robot, variation of the Earl bot using treads. You can use the attachment to kick balls sideways. The robot is useful in STEM classes where students have to construct robots quickly.

Building instructions for a LEGO Mindstorms EV3 robot that we call Space Explorer. The motors are attached in a very interesting way to the brick. Both the brick and the motors are vertical and there are not many robots like this. With its ultrasonic sensor, this robot allows you to follow, find or avoid objects. Just like an explorer. And since it is a robot why not put it in space and call it "Space Explorer".

There is one part that is not from the EV3 sets, but you can actually skip it. You don't need it. Try to find which one.

Let's go fast. Large wheels on the back. A lot of torque, small wheels on the front, good aerodynamics. Here we go.

These are building instructions for a LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Drag Car. 

Building instructions for a LEGO Mindstorms Robot that cleans the landing site when landing on a different planet. Built from an EV3 set it is a perfect simple tank robot with continuous tracks for lifting and moving things. Basically cleaning.   

Piscis from Latin means fish.

Piscis is a LEGO fish robot which uses a very interesting mechanism for turning. It's tail uses a medium motor to turn left or right. On its end there are two wheels. When the robot turns its tail, those wheels navigate the movement of the robot and it turns. This results in a cool turning mechanism which resembles how fish move.

Piscis also uses a large motor to move forward and backward. The touch sensor at the front helps it sense danger and return quickly back to the reef.

Watch out for the tooth wheels, they bite!

The goal of these building instructions is to build a LEGO Mindstorms EV3 robot without wheels. You should then decide on your own how exactly to add the wheel. Which wheels would you use at the front? How are you going to build the third wheel? Here are some recommendations on building the third wheel - 1,2,3,4 

Building instructions for a LEGO Truck. The robot is presented as an Ammo Truck but it can be used for transporting various other objects, too. The construction has a rear drive with each of the rear wheels driven by a Large Lego Motor. The front wheels steer using a Medium Lego Motor. The Brick is placed at the front of the construction which gives the opportunity to easily attach different sensors, based on the task. 

Building instructions for a LEGO EV3 Robo-tank. The construction is incredibly simple, with an upright Brick, which makes it perfectly suitable for lessons with students.

Antares is the brightest star in the Scorpius constellation.

The robot's main purpose is to show two different grabbing mechanisms - one vertical and one horizontal. The vertical pincers use a medium motor and the horizontal pincers use a large motor. Additionally the robot has a sting mechanism which uses another large motor. For a head it uses an EV3 ultrasonic sensor. With the sensor, the robot can sense when the prey is close enough for a suprise attack.

Build from LEGO EV3 Core and Expansion set this robot looks like a scorpion. The Scorpion strikes, when it sees a pray with the ultrasonic sensor and you can use the touch sensor and the rotation sensor to control the spike movement. It has a scissor mechanism at the back using a system of gears and levers. 

This here is a base for a robot that has the brick Upside Down. Have you seen Stranger Things? We would admit that this robot does not look exactly like a 'Demogorgon', but this here is the challenge. Can you use this base and make the robot look like a Demogorgon. Add a picture to the comments section below the material.

Do you have other ideas for Demogorgon? Build them with LEGO and add a picture below this material or send it to team@fllcasts.com. We would feature it at FLLCasts.com.

Let's build a robot with treads. These building instructions are for a Guard Tank Robot. The good thing about tanks is that they could tackle a lot of obstacles on their way. At least this is what people are saying. Try it. Could you move over LEGO parts with this tank if they are one brick tall, or two bricks tall? What would be the largest obstacle that you could find, over which this tank could still move? Share a video or picture below in the comments section.

We would admit that this tank lacks a gun or an arm, but it is up to you to build one.

Building instructions for a LEGO Mindstorms animal that looks like a Penguin, and walks like a penguin and if you program it, it will even talk like a penguin. Can you program it to talk like a penguin?

Don't we all love animals? But it is sometimes difficult to have a puppy at home. Presenting to you - the Puppy robot (drums in the back). It has some of the benefits of a Puppy - it is small, it can follow you with the Ultrasonic Sensor and it can bark (if you program it to). Follow the building instructions. Use it at home or at class.

It's fast. It's on two wheels. It's a motorcycle. And this one is built from LEGO Mindstorms EV3 sets with the use of one additional Medium Motor. If you have two medium motors, great. If you don't have you can build the  Handlebar - Chopper Motorcycle built with LEGO Mindstorms EV3, because it uses one large and one medium motor that are available in any EV3 set.

Currently, the motorcycle has no sensors. It's more of an exercise in construction, but if you attach sensors and think of a way to attach them send us a picture.

Join the course A robot a "day" keeps the questions awake where we will further discuss the motors, how to build them and what tasks to accomplish with them.

 You can also download the program from here.

Again a LEGO animal. This time it looks like an ant. It's interesting that this robot has no wheels and moves in a way very different from the rest of the "wheel robots". 

There is much to be learned about mechanics from the way animals move. Ants are a good example. In the real world, an ant could carry a load of 20x its mass. It would be interesting to see how much load could this robot carry? Try it. 

This is a version of the Midas - a LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Clam robot. The main difference between the two robots is that the motors are flipped. 

The robot uses two Large Mindstorms EV3 Motors to open and close its shell. There are four hoses on the top of the shell which can be reshaped to form different shell styles. It also uses two black bent beams for eyebrows that can be moved to change the expression of the clam. A Castor Ball is used to represent its pearl.