According to several reports, Lego has announced that it will discontinue its Mindstorms robotics kit before the end of the year. Lego Mindstorms is a hardware and software building kit that creates programmable robots largely dependent on Lego building blocks. Each version contains computer Lego bricks, a set of reconfigurable sensors, and motors.
As per Gizmodo, Lego fan sites were the first to share the news that the Lego company had decided to discontinue its Mindstorms robotics line. This occurred after a couple of years of inactivity, during which no new models were introduced.
Furthermore, the company announced that it will continue to support Mindstorms' partner apps but that they will be phased out in two years.
Lego Discontinues Mindstorms
The company's most recent Lego Mindstorms release was the $359.99 "LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor 5-in-1 set," which was the first addition to the Lego Mindstorms theme in seven years. This Lego robotics set introduces new creative coding possibilities to provide young inventors and creators with a new learning experience. This set was launched in June 2020.
As stated by the Lego Company, the LEGO Mindstorms has long been one of the company's core 'Build & Code' experiences, but Lego is "now having a number of priorities in LEGO Education and other Build & Code experiences."
"We have decided to focus our resources and future plans by redirecting our Mindstorms Robot Inventor team and their expertise into different areas of the business," the company said in a statement shared by Brickset.
A Quick Glance at Lego Mindstorms History
The origins of the Lego Mindstorms can be traced back to an early collaboration between Lego and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the 1980s.
The LEGO Company began sponsoring a project in MIT's Media Lab to develop a "programmable brick" in 1985, and the first Mindstorms construction kit was released in 1998. Mindstorms turned out to be a robotic invention system that revolutionized LEGO construction kits.
According to MIT, the brick allows children to build and program their own robots and other computerized devices. This technology has been used not only by youngsters and adolescents for play and learning but also by businesses as a rapid prototyping tool.
As said by Engadget, the EV3 robotics platform was a significant addition to the building sets in 2013. This new lineup was backward compatible with the NXT series, and it improved sensor load and processing power.
Following that, Lego released dedicated mobile apps that turned iOS and Android devices into remote controls for Mindstorms projects. Finally, it established a Mindstorms community where users could communicate and collaborate on their creations.
The physical Mindstorms Robot Inventor product and its related elements will be phased out by the end of 2022, while digital platforms will be available until at least the end of 2024.
