
ISOGAWA Yoshihito, author of "The Orange Book" (OB)has a new PDF book coming out on October 1. Unlike the OB, this book has very little text (only 3 pages to be exact) but over 200 pages of mechanisms (a nice mix of small, medium, and large) built from LEGO and Technic parts, including NXT components and the new Power Functions motors. It's all in full-color and he's asking for those who download the book and find it useful to contribute $10.00.

I'm including some screenshots here of a few of the 211 pages. There are some amazing designs here and I'm having a hard time picking which ones to use as examples. The book does not require the reader to speak or read Japanese and all 211 demo pages are fairly easy to figure out and duplicate.

FLL teams are sure to find some great examples for inspiration. The sheer amount of work put into these mechanisms is amazing and I highly encourage those of you who do download and enjoy the book to contribute - this will allow Yoshihito to continue developing more books and reference material.

More details will be provided when the book becomes available for download and purchase.
Comments
I've been mulling creatiing more posts on the pre-robotics level, but I'm not sure that it's appropriate for this blog.
For those coaching or participating on teams -- do you find that it's useful to build small projects like these that feature one or two mechanisms before jumping into full-fledged robotics?
I'd like to see more of this rather that complete solutions.
I also wouldn't mind participating in some sort of book club to try and make sense of some of these simple mechanisms in order to document the science behind them - as well as the english translation of any well known mechanisms and their real world uses.
David
Dear LEGO fans:
We would like to invite you to participate in the 2009 (fourth) Industrial Robot Competition. This competition is held by National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (Taiwan).
LEGO NXT and RCX are welcome in this competition. The goal of the event is to promote the robot education. The challenge this year is to develop a forklift robot and to accomplish a serious of jobs. For any further information please take a look at our homepage: http://www.ppml.npust.edu.tw/
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at robot@mail.npust.edu.tw. We look forward to seeing you in Taiwan!
Chien-Ho Ko
On behalf of organizing committee
robot@mail.npust.edu.tw