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Contributors

Hideaki Yabuki works as a Media Activist promoting new technologies to the
next generation. To him, robotics is the most important of these technologies. He
was first introduced to LEGO robots in 1985 by a friend of his, Mr. Kurita, who
had recently returned from the MIT Media Lab with some LEGO Dacta products.
Influenced also by Dr. Seymour Papert’s book, Mindstorms: Children, Computers,
and Powerful Ideas, Hideaki feels that LEGOs offer a hands-on approach to
learning that is often missing these days in our digital world. His robot in this
book, the Scorpion, is the result of much trial and error on his part. Hideaki
would like to thank J.P. Brown, without whom he could not have become
involved with this book. He would also like to thank Kevin Clague, inventor of
the LPub application for semi-automated LEGO instruction creation. Lastly,
Hideaki would like to give his deepest thanks for the support of his mother, Rei,
and his dear wife and son, Keiko and Kei. Hideaki has a dream that one day the
people of Japan will be able to join hands with biped robots as friends.

Kevin Clague graduated in 1983 from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s of
Science degree in Computer Engineering. For the past 18 years, Kevin has worked
as a Diagnostic Engineer at the Amdahl Corporation. For the last two years, he has
also acted as a Senior Staff Engineer doing verification work at Sun Microsystems
on their Ultra-Sparc V RISC processor. Kevin has two major hobbies: theatrical
lighting and LEGO MINDSTORMS. Kevin has been playing with the RIS 1.5 for
several years now and is currently working on LPub, an application to revolu-
tionize the world of creating online LEGO building instructions.

Miguel Agullo was born in Spain but has lived abroad for long periods of time,
from the Far East to South America, from central Europe to the U.S. His wide
range of interests is responsible for his work in such diverse industries as
finance, media, aeronautics, and antique trading. Trained as a journalist and
impressed with the candor and resourcefulness of the online LEGO community,
Miguel tries to give something back by regularly updating his Web site at
www.geocities.com/technicpuppy with instructions for new models, new Ldraw
pieces, and anything he thinks is worth sharing with other LEGO aficionados.
His building interests revolve around robotics, and specifically biomechanics: cre-
ating mechanisms that mimic the behavior of natural devices such as legs or
arms. His creations include biped walkers, robots that jump, and a fully func-
tional (including a brake!) LEGO motorcycle. His current hobbies include

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