The Lego Mindstorms system solidified my desire to become an engineer, and introduced me to the realities of robotics. Here are some of the cool things I built before starting my career as a professional robotics engineer.

Cyclops - A one eyed photovore. I built it with Lego motors because they are powerful and easy to work with. It only has a single eye, so it wiggles back and forth to seek out the brightest light source. This is the only one of my Lego robots still in existence. It is a lot of fun to show off at STEM events.

I made these robots in high-school and early college.

Legs - A hexapod walker. July 1999 Lego Mindstorms Novice Hall of Fame winner.

Smart-Turn Bot - Basically just a bumper bot, but with rack-and-pinion steering and the ability to sense when the wheels are straight. December 2000 Lego Mindstorms Novice Hall of Fame winner.

Robo Snake - A five segmented snake with home built red LED eyes.

Robotnik - Another bumper bot, but with home built infrared proximity detectors and four wheel steering.

Maze Bot - A robot that can solve a simple maze.

These are some of my home made Lego sensors.

Accelerometer - A simple pendulum, one axis accelerometer.

Keyboard - 12 buttons in 1 sensor port.

IRPD - An infrared proximity detector.