For the long time I was curious about the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 set, because it's the low entry toolkit for beginning your journey with robotics. What I didn't know is that Mindstorms contains ARM-based computer device, which can run Linux without any complications and make your own experiments with servo motors and sensors.

I decided to build a robot that is capable of driving around and making 2D scan map of its surroundings. For the only one "sense" I've chosen the infrared sensor, because I noticed it can operate in the proximity measurement mode - it measures the amount of reflected light from the its own IR light source.

Please check the result on Youtube!

Here is the Python code for this project:

Mindstorms IR mapper on Github

Indeed, engineers from LEGO did really good job with designing the hardware and software for Mindstorms. I'm really happy that they thought about making Mindstorms as customizable as it's possible.