LEGO MINDSTORMS 20th ANNIVERSARY

Fan created logo designed by Marina Stamboli, Greece

In honor of LEGO® MINDSTORMS 20th ANNIVERSARY the LEGO HOUSE in Billund, Denmark held an exhibition from Sept 1st to 16th 2018. Of course there was also the traditional celebration cake for all the employees that have been involved with MINDSTORMS throughout the years. 

#MINDSTORMS20 Celebration cake, Billund, Denmark

The large MINDSTORMS family

The exhibit featuring 20 years of creations from fan around the world

In September 2018, LEGO® MINDSTORMS celebrates it’s 20th anniversary.

The journey began in September 1998. That year, the LEGO MINDSTORMS RCX Robotics Invention System was launched after nearly a decade of collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop an “intelligent brick” that would bring LEGO creations to life via computer programming, motors, and sensors. The late Seymour Papert developed the ideas behind the “intelligent brick”. Together with MIT’s Media Lab, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, and LEGO, Papert helped to develop MINDSTORMS.

Shortly after the launch in 1998, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen and inventor Dean Kamen, founded FIRST* LEGO League – a robotics competition for middle school students. Today, the competition has grown to 35.000 teams with over 250.000 children in 88 countries.

What started with LEGO MINDSTORMS in 1998, sparked the expansion of new offerings for children and playful adults to explore robotics and coding. LEGO now has an entire spectrum of products for children to learn coding: LEGO MINDSTORMS and WeDo were created by the educational division LEGO Education, LEGO BOOST was developed for younger children, and the newly launched LEGO DUPLO Train gives preschoolers a great way to start coding.

Since the launch of MINDSTORMS a large and very passionate community of robotics and LEGO fans have played a vital role in inspiring children, future engineers, and software developers, by pushing the limits for what you can do with LEGO MINDSTORMS. This exhibition in front of you is a tribute to all the inspiration the fans have given to the robot builders of tomorrow. The community is organized through www.robotmak3rs.com 

* For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology

 

Below is a video edited by robotmak3rs' Ahmad Sahar featuring every robot that was presented at the exhibit.

LEGO MINDSTORMS Milestones:

• September 1998: The Robotics Invention System is launched simultaneously in the United States and the United Kingdom. Two expansion sets, RoboSports and Extreme Creatures, are also made available.


• September 1999: The Robotics Discovery Set, Ultimate Accessory Set, Droid Developer Kit and the Robotics Invention System 1.5 are released in the United States.
• February 2000: The Robotics Invention System 2.0, Dark Side Developer Kit™ (a pre-programmed, remote controlled robot kit), Vision Command System™ (a PC camera expansion kit for the RIS), and Exploration Mars™ (themed robot challenges, building instructions and games for the RIS) expansion set are unveiled at the American International Toy Fair in New York.


• August 2006: LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT is launched


• April 2007: FIRST LEGO League exceeds 100,000 participants for the first time.


• May 2008: LEGO MINDSTORMS is inducted to the Carnegie Mellon University Robot Hall of Fame.


• August 2009: The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 platform iteration is released.


• January 2013: The 15th anniversary of LEGO MINDSTORMS is celebrated and the next generation platform, LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3, is unveiled at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES).


• September 2013: The third incarnation of LEGO robotics, LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3, is launched worldwide.

www.robotmak3rs.com