{"id":12201,"date":"2017-06-02T07:55:08","date_gmt":"2017-06-01T21:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/legoeng.local\/?p=12201"},"modified":"2017-09-07T15:28:31","modified_gmt":"2017-09-07T05:28:31","slug":"meet-the-creator-kevin-clague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/legoeng.local\/meet-the-creator-kevin-clague\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Creator: Kevin Clague"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kevin Clague<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kevin Clague is a Senior Principal Hardware Engineer at Oracle Corporation. He is also the head coach for Eagan Minnesota’s FIRST Tech Challenge teams. Kevin has been an avid LEGO fan since the introduction of the Robot Invention System (MINDSTORMS RCX), and helped develop the MINDSTORMS NXT product as part of the MINDSTORMS Users Program.<\/p>\n

Kevin is the author of LPub, an LDraw Publishing tool that produces LEGO-style building instructions, as well as LSynth. Kevin has written three books on LEGO robotics and one on the LDraw family of CAD tools. In his spare time, Kevin enjoys theatrical lighting design as creative outlet where he can use the creative and logical halves of his brain at the same time.<\/p>\n

How did you get started building with LEGO bricks?<\/h4>\n

I played with some LEGO as a child. I had some classic bricks, and some of the original technic gears.<\/p>\n

As an adult, I saw the first LEGO MINDSTORMS product in the store. I bought myself a Dark Side Developer’s Kit and was hooked. I then bought a MINDSTORMS Robot Invention System. My first goal was to make a two-legged walker. I struggled for a few weeks with the physics and then decided to model my first MOC after a penguin, which has low center of gravity, decreasing the risk of falling. I then followed that up with an RCX-based walking Star Wars AT-ST biped.<\/p>\n

Which project (or projects) are you the most proud of? Why?<\/h4>\n

I guess I’m most proud of my four books. \u00a0The first book was titled “10 Cool LEGO Mindstorms: Dark Side Robots”.\u00a0 I invented four of the ten robots, including three bipeds and one hexapod. The second book was “10 Cool LEGO Mindstorms Ultimate Builders Projects”, containing models based on RIS. Next, Syngress wanted me to co-author a book on the LDraw family of CAD tools. That book was a much larger effort. Besides providing the publishing tools for the first two books, the books themselves had little written language and were mostly building instructions. “LEGO Software Power Tools” was written to teach people CAD, which is a highly technical thing to describe.<\/p>\n

My most recent book is “LEGO Mindstorms Masterpieces”, where I got to use whatever parts LEGO made.\u00a0 By this time I had discovered LEGO pneumatics, which allowed me to apply some of the things I learned on computer engineering classes in college to making LEGO inventions.<\/p>\n

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Pneumatic biped<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Where do you find inspiration for new projects?<\/h4>\n

I’m very interested in making walking and crawling creatures, so I get my inspiration from nature. I’ve invented 2-, 4-, 5-, 6-, and 8-legged walkers, as well as over a dozen forms of inchworm, all using only LEGO pneumatics. I even have an inchworm that can crawl backwards and forwards. I also made a quadruped that can walk forwards, backwards and turn right and left.<\/p>\n

I’ve made 2- and 6-legged walkers using MINDSTORMS. I’ve also made a number of bipeds just using technic motors, gears and battery packs.<\/p>\n

I think my cutest walker is a tiny walker<\/a> based on the micro-motor. You can get building instructions<\/a> for a similar walker.<\/p>\n

My silliest walker is a variation on the micro-motor walker, Dark Helmet<\/a>. It is a tiny walker that fits inside Darth Vader’s helmet.<\/p>\n

How many iterations do you typically go through when you create your projects?<\/h4>\n

Typically many iterations are required to get the result. This pneumatic biped was the second draft. The first one only used switches on one leg, and it limped. Building instructions<\/a> are available for this project.<\/p>\n