Robot Description
LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT is back and better than ever: new models, more customisable programming and all-new technologies! MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 combines the versatility of the LEGO building system with all-new technologies, an intelligent microcomputer brick and intuitive drag-and-drop programming software. The new 2.0 toolkit features everything you need to create your first robot in 30 minutes and then thousands of other robotics inventions that do what you want!
LEGO Mindstorms is a line of Lego Group products combining programmable bricks with electric motors, sensors, Lego bricks, and Lego Technic pieces (such as gears, axles, beams, and pneumatic parts) to build robots and other automated or interactive systems.
LEGO Mindstorms can be consired toys and/or educational microworlds to learn computer programming.
History
Orgininally, this product has been co-developped with the Epistemology and Learning Group of MIT Media Lab. Since collaboration has ended, this research group renamed to Lifelong Kindergarden worked on other systems, e.g. Crickets (marketed by another company)
Software
LEGO sells different variants of this product: RCX and the recent NXT
For each LEGO provides software (programming languages), but there are numerous other ones that one can use instead.