What got you in to the LEGO hobby?
“My first encounter with LEGO was at Christmas 1999. My son was about to turn 4 and doing Christmas shopping in the centre of Mexico City, I
discovered the Lego Technic 8230 Police Buggy model.I bought it without knowing what the LEGO Technic theme was.”

“That night when I got home the first thing I did was open the model and at that moment my life changed. I discovered a world of parts of excellent finish and precision, gears of various shapes, shafts, connectors, rubber wheels….”
“The following month I discovered the MIT course 6,270. I couldn’t imagine that someone could build robots out of LEGO Technic parts and control them with little computers and electric motors. From that moment my adventure with LEGO began.”
A dive in to LEGO robotics
“In 2007 I had the opportunity to participate in three robotics contests where I use LEGO as a fundamental part of robots -in March, I participated as the coach of a group of students from the University of Monterrey in the Third Rockwell Robochallenge 2007 National Robotics Contest organised by the Tecnológico de Monterrey, finishing second.”
“It was an obstacle course in the water and the robot was made by taking a plastic packaging box from BIONICLE….”

“In August, participate in the 4th Mexican Cleaning Robot Tournament, in the city of Puebla, Mexico. It was also a water contest. The robot had a system of LEGO scissors with which it collected cans floating in the water:”

“…and in November, participate in the VI Latin American Robotics Competition, in the city of Monterrey, Mexico. The robot had to retrieve four wooden cubes from a maze. I used two NXTs to drive the robot, which had a pneumatic system from FISCHERTECHNIK to collect the cubes. I didn’t have LEGO pneumatic: )”

“And that’s how I entered the world of LEGO.”
Wow – what a great way to become involved in the LEGO hobby, Jorge! I particularly love the use of the Bionicle packaging as a robot casing.