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 programmable brick shown alongside three sensors (touch, light and rotation) and an electric motor.Lego Mindstorms is marketed commercially as the Robotics Invention System (RIS). It is also sold and used as an educational tool, originally through a partnership between Lego and the MIT Media Laboratory [1], [2]. The educational version of the products is called Lego Mindstorms for Schools, and comes with the ROBOLAB GUI-based programming software.

Lego Mindstorms may be used to build a model of an embedded system with computer-controlled electromechanical parts. Almost all kinds of real-life embedded systems, from elevator controllers to industrial robots, may be modelled using Mindstorms.

There is a strong community of professionals and hobbyists of all ages involved in the sharing of designs, programming techniques, and other ideas associated with Lego Mindstorms.

The original Mindstorms RCX was released in 1998. In 2006, Lego announced a next-generation Mindstorms system called NXT, centered around a new programmable brick. [3] [4] The Lego Mindstorms NXT is due for release in August 2006.