| It's very inspiring to learn about the major accomplishment of India to send a mission to Mars. India has come along way in past few decades becoming one of strongest nations for technological development and now are becoming leaders in space exploration. |
What I really like about India is that they have kept the ingenious, entrepreneurial spirit making the achievement going to Mars even more impressive when you consider it only costs 1/10th of what NASA will spend in a similar mission. It's not about being cheap but being really competitive and globalization is bringing a new level competition that our kids might not be ready for. I will say that using Lego to build robots is very similar what NASA is doing, and I will discuss some alternatives that can accomplish the same in lower cost.
But before I proceed, I must say that the Lego robotic products are well designed and I have used them earlier as a teenager and I loved them. However I could only use them at school because cost prohibitive for my parents to afford. Kids imagination should not be restricted by cost and I am personal advocate of products like the Raspberry Pi that were designed to allow most people access technology at an affordable cost. Those are great initiatives and should be encouraged in our education systems both public and private. So my point is not to say that what NASA or Lego is not a good alternative, my point is that before committing to spend, it's worth to research options. For example with $1000 budget you could embark in 8-10 very interesting advanced projects with Raspberry Pi and buy many accessories and devices. to play with; on the other hand you could buy probably one or two Lego sets and you will find that compatibility with other products is restricted. I am not here to argue which one is better but I'd end by saying that NASA got to Mars so did India but in a more ingenious way.
I will share a couple of recent experiences on the subject of ingenious engineering and how impressed I was with the ingenuity of people to overcome some technical challenges at really low cost reaching out to the global market.
Without going in all the technical details my partner and I experienced a hack attack to our website and let me tell you is not a pretty experience. Of course we took immediate measures but there were things beyond our technical reach so we went to look for experts on the subject to prevent this from happening again. It was mind-boggling when we start getting the initial quotations some of them were as expensive as the cost of the total venture. We felt discouraged to say the least but determined to persevere we reach out in O-Desk for freelancer expertise. It was the best decision we made, for 1/100th of the cost. That's right one penny for every dollar we were able not to only fix but get an on-going service to monitor and simulate the level of protection to our servers. I don't consider ourselves lucky since we even shop around with offers from India, Ukraine, Israel and Latin America. We decided to work with an excellent network engineer from India, it was a pleasure working with him. He was polite and very committed; plus his communication skills were outstanding keeping us in the loop throughout the process. I'll hire and recommend him any time. I am sure our local experts could have done the same but honestly it was beyond our reach and going forward why will I even consider to pay 100 times more for the same service.
And perhaps a simpler example I will share is something you can do at home without hiring someone overseas. I embarked in a new project with my son to build a simple robot, the catch is that it required many motors and since he wanted to attach his Lego creation as well it kind of had to be with Lego motors. So as always we started with the project plan and when it came to budget I realize this will be a couple of hundred dollars in motors alone. So I started researching how to use regular DC motors with Lego in YouTube and I came across this video that I must share. It's so ingenious and effective. It lower our cost to 1/10th of a Lego motor and it's very robust. Also you can buy DC motors in surplus stores for $1 or less. There you go a simple, low cost alternative for your projects thanks to the ingenuity of Technic Robot.
But before I proceed, I must say that the Lego robotic products are well designed and I have used them earlier as a teenager and I loved them. However I could only use them at school because cost prohibitive for my parents to afford. Kids imagination should not be restricted by cost and I am personal advocate of products like the Raspberry Pi that were designed to allow most people access technology at an affordable cost. Those are great initiatives and should be encouraged in our education systems both public and private. So my point is not to say that what NASA or Lego is not a good alternative, my point is that before committing to spend, it's worth to research options. For example with $1000 budget you could embark in 8-10 very interesting advanced projects with Raspberry Pi and buy many accessories and devices. to play with; on the other hand you could buy probably one or two Lego sets and you will find that compatibility with other products is restricted. I am not here to argue which one is better but I'd end by saying that NASA got to Mars so did India but in a more ingenious way.
I will share a couple of recent experiences on the subject of ingenious engineering and how impressed I was with the ingenuity of people to overcome some technical challenges at really low cost reaching out to the global market.
Without going in all the technical details my partner and I experienced a hack attack to our website and let me tell you is not a pretty experience. Of course we took immediate measures but there were things beyond our technical reach so we went to look for experts on the subject to prevent this from happening again. It was mind-boggling when we start getting the initial quotations some of them were as expensive as the cost of the total venture. We felt discouraged to say the least but determined to persevere we reach out in O-Desk for freelancer expertise. It was the best decision we made, for 1/100th of the cost. That's right one penny for every dollar we were able not to only fix but get an on-going service to monitor and simulate the level of protection to our servers. I don't consider ourselves lucky since we even shop around with offers from India, Ukraine, Israel and Latin America. We decided to work with an excellent network engineer from India, it was a pleasure working with him. He was polite and very committed; plus his communication skills were outstanding keeping us in the loop throughout the process. I'll hire and recommend him any time. I am sure our local experts could have done the same but honestly it was beyond our reach and going forward why will I even consider to pay 100 times more for the same service.
And perhaps a simpler example I will share is something you can do at home without hiring someone overseas. I embarked in a new project with my son to build a simple robot, the catch is that it required many motors and since he wanted to attach his Lego creation as well it kind of had to be with Lego motors. So as always we started with the project plan and when it came to budget I realize this will be a couple of hundred dollars in motors alone. So I started researching how to use regular DC motors with Lego in YouTube and I came across this video that I must share. It's so ingenious and effective. It lower our cost to 1/10th of a Lego motor and it's very robust. Also you can buy DC motors in surplus stores for $1 or less. There you go a simple, low cost alternative for your projects thanks to the ingenuity of Technic Robot.
So I hope this provokes some consideration from your side for your next project and try to research your alternatives so you can put your resources to best use. At Robo-Geek we believe in unleashing your kids' imagination. Now, when you combine Imagination with Ingenuity that's a very powerful weapon. Hope you like this article. And please share an ingenious solution that you were impressed or something you have come up on your own. Cheers, Omar | |