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xxiv About This Book

■ Ppl Purple
■ TLG Transparent Light Green
■ TY Transparent Yellow

■ R Red

The instructional picture next to the parts list shows how those parts connect to
one another.As the robot’s construction progresses, it gets harder to see where parts
get added, so you’ll see we have made the parts that you add in each particular step
darker than those added in previous steps. Many of the steps also have a few brief lines
of text to more fully explain building procedures that may not be obvious from the
pictures alone, or to discuss what role this step plays in the larger scheme of the
robot’s construction.
Once you have finished building all of the separate sub-assemblies, it’s time to put
them all together to complete the robot.The set of steps at the end of each chapter
titled “Putting It All Together” walks you through the process of attaching together
the sub-assemblies.
Throughout the chapters you will see three types of sidebars:
■ Bricks & Chips… These sidebars explain key LEGO building concepts
and terminology.

■ Developing & Deploying… These sidebars explain why certain building
techniques were used with a particular robot and what purpose they serve.

■ Inventing… These sidebars offer suggestions for customizing the robots or
modifying the robots using alternate parts should you not have the parts
listed in the parts list at your disposal.

About the CD-ROM

Building your robots is, or course, only half the fun! Getting them to run using the
RCX brick is what distinguishes MINDSTORMS robots from ordinary models cre-
ated with LEGO bricks. Some of the robots in this book will require specific pro-
grams for these robots to perform as intended. Many of them will use unique
programs that the authors have written specifically for their robots. Keep an eye out
for the CD-ROM icons scattered throughout the book.
These icons alert you to the fact that there is code for this particular robot avail-
able on the companion CD-ROM for the book.The downloadable programs for the

www.syngress.com