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I am really passionate about the machine learning,data mining and computer vision fields and I was thinking at taking things a little bit further.

I was thinking at buying a LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 robot for trying to experiment machine learning/computer vision and robotics algorithms in order to try to understand better several existing concepts.

Would you encourage me into doing so? Do you recommend any other alternative for a practical approach in understanding these fields which is acceptably expensive like(nearly 200 - 250 pounds) ? Are there any mini robots which I can buy and experiment stuff with?

Simon
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    The question might be too subjective but I would definitely encourage you to do so. Those LEGO Mindstorms seem a bit expensive but I've seen many awesome applications for them. – ereOn Mar 08 '12 at 08:57

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If your interests are machine learning, data mining and computer vision then I'd say a Lego mindstorms is not the best option for you. Not unless you are also interested in robotics/electronics.

  • Do do interesting machine learning you only need a computer and a problem to solve. Think ai-contest or mlcomp or similar.
  • Do do interesting data mining you need a computer, a lot of data and a question to answer. If you have an internet connection the amount of data you can get at is only limited by your bandwidth. Think netflix prize, try your hand at collecting and interpreting data from wherever. If you are learning, this is a nice place to start.
  • As for computer vision: All you need is a computer and images. Depending on the type of problem you find interesting you could do some processing of random webcam images, take all you holiday photo's and try to detect where all your travel companions are in them. If you have a webcam your options are endless.

Lego mindstorms allows you to combine machine learning and computer vision. I'm not sure where the datamining would come in, and you will spend (waste?) time on the robotics/electronics side of things, which you don't list as one of your passions.

jilles de wit
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Well, I would take a look at the irobot create... well within your budget, and very robust. Depending on your age, you may not want to be seen with a "lego robot" if you are out of college :-)

Anyway, I buy the creates in batches for my lab. You can link to them with a hard cable(cheap) or put a blue tooth interface on it.

But a webcam on that puppy, hook it up to a multicore machine and you have an awesome working robot for the things you want to explore.

Also, the old roombas had a ttl level serial port (if that did not make sense to you , then skip it). I don't know about the new ones. So, it was possible to control any roomba vacuum from a laptop.

The Number One rule, and I cannot emphasize this enough: Have a reliable platform for experimentation. If you hand build something, just for basic functionality, you will spend all your time on minor issues and not get to the fun stuff.

Anyway. best of luck.

Prometheus.one
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