Kirk Backstrom, Creator of MORPH A Bit About Me I am a design engineer living in Saskatchewan, Canada where I design mechanisms and mechanical systems for tools, machinery, and robots. I mostly use LEGO TECHNIC and LEGO MINDSTORMS professionally as a design tool – its modular components allows me to create, test, and optimize concepts as a part of the design process. Aside from work, I am a contributor for the NXT Step Blog <www.thenxtstep.com>, a MINDSTORMS Community Partner, and a bit of an inventor. I am fascinated with mechanisms, biomimetics, and robotics. A fun fact: I got my first LEGO set when I was 4. Who is MORPH? MORPH is an alien robot sent from a far off galaxy to seek out new life forms on strange worlds. When travelling through Sector 7154Y, otherwise known by us Earthlings as the “Solar System”, he decides to pay a visit to the 3rd planet from the Sun, Earth. MORPH stands for Martian Observation Rover & Personable Humanoid, where the rover form functions to seek out life forms and the role of the humanoid form is to interact with them. His special ability is he can transform. He also can communicate by way of colours and sometimes likes to dance. You can even control him yourself to complete your own missions. MORPH Beginnings In 2008, I got a short contract where I would work twelve hour night shifts (alone) at a surface operated potash mine in Saskatchewan. In between taking sensor readings, I spent most of my time in a truck keeping warm where I could do whatever I wanted to pass the time, as long as I kept awake. So I compiled a set of NXT 2.0 parts and brought it to work to keep myself occupied during those long (but fun) nights. I brainstormed first about what I should build and decided that a transforming robot would be an exciting, fun model. When I started building I did not realize what I got myself into as I soon realized creating a transforming robot was more difficult than I imagined. At times I was dissatisfied with my initial results and wanted to give up, but I just kept solving each problem one at a time until I got MORPH as it is today. This experience helped me to greater realize that if anyone wants to achieve anything, they must persist: It may seem hopeless at times, but anyone can achieve their goal if they keep trying. MORPH Specifications ƒ
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1 NXT 3 Servos (2 for driving, 1 for transforming) 1 Ultrasonic Sensor (for object avoidance) 1 Colour Sensor/Lamp (for communicating with others via colours) 2 Touch Sensors (for turning feature) The official MORPH program allows MORPH to be controlled by the coloured balls and touch sensors: ƒ
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Green ball makes MORPH go forward. Red ball makes MORPH stop. Blue ball makes MORPH transform. Yellow ball makes MORPH dance. Left Touch Sensor spins MORPH left. Right Touch Sensor spins MORPH right. If MORPH sleeps, wave your hand in front of his face to wake him up. This is the birth place of MORPH, a potash mine in Saskatchewan, Canada. My "workshop" where MORPH was being created was in the white truck, barely seen on the right hand side of the picture. Early transforming mechanism of MORPH built in the "workshop".