Learning LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3

Gary Garber

• Verlag: Packt Publishing
• Jahr: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781783985036
• Thema: Informatique
• Thema: Intelligence artificielle (IA) et sémantique

About This Book

• Optimize the use of multiple sensors to build a robot that navigates and interacts with its environment
• Work with both the Home Edition and the Educational Edition of the LEGO EV3 Mindstorms kit
• A practical guide with step-by-step building instructions to help you create your very own robot

Who This Book Is For

This book is for the hobbyists, builders, and programmers who want to build and control their very own robots beyond the capabilities provided with the LEGO EV3 kit. You will need the LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 kit for this book. The book is compatible with both the Home Edition and the Educational Edition of the kit. You should already have a rudimentary knowledge of general programming concepts and will need to have gone through the basic introductory material provided by the official LEGO EV3 tutorials.

Learning LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3

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Table of Contents

Learning LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why subscribe?

Free access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Engineering Notebook

The engineering design process

Content Editor features

New pages and page actions

Computer-aided Design and building instructions

LEGO Digital Designer

LDraw

Commenting on your code

Summary

2. Mechanical Design

Mechanical advantage

Motors

Large motors and gears

Writing a program

Bevel gears at right angles

Worm gear

Using wires and parallel threads

Summary

3. Drive Train and Chassis

Chassis

Skid-bot with the Retail kit

Caster-bot with the Educational kit

Tread-bot with the Retail kit

Tread-bot with the Educational kit

Programming the robot to move forward

Summary

4. Sensors and Control

Using sensors

Programming blocks

LEGO EV3 sensors

Touch Sensors

Color Sensors

Motor Rotation sensors

Gyro Sensors

Ultrasonic motion sensors

Infrared Sensors

Third-party sensors

Dexter Industries

Mindsensors

HiTechnic sensors

MATRIX motor controllers and metal parts

Vernier sensors

Summary

5. Interacting with EV3

Push buttons

IR remote buttons

Bluetooth control

Smart device control

Wi-Fi control

Summary

6. Output from EV3

Display

Image Editor

Display data

Brick lights

Legacy NXT/RCX lights

Sound

Music

Summary

7. Advanced Programming

Loop and the Motor Rotation sensors

Loop and the Gyro Sensor

Troubleshooting with the Gyro Sensor

Switch or two-level controller

Three-level controller

Subroutines or My Blocks

Arrays

Summary

8. Advanced Programming and Control

Distance controller

Infrared versus Ultrasonic

Proportional algorithm

Line following using the Color Sensor

Setpoint for line tracking

Two-level or bang-bang controller

Proportional line follower

Entering gain and speed

PID controller

Gyro Sensor

IR sensor navigation and beacon tracking

Tracking a circle

Triangulation

Summary

9. Experiment Software and Data Logging

Data logging software

Improving dead reckoning

Analyzing gain constants

Graphical programming

Other bang-bang controllers

Summary

10. Other Programming Languages

LabVIEW

Front Panel and Block Diagram

Programming blocks

Loops

Line following VI

Robot tools

Data

Front Panel and clean Block Diagrams

SubVIs

RobotC

Simple code

Commands

Variables

Remote control

Graphical programming

Summary

11. Communication between Robots

Enabling communication

Messaging

Follow the leader

Maintain a distance

Search and rescue

Completing the search

Summary

12. Advanced Robot – Gyro Boy

Concept of a balancing robot

The Gyro Boy model

Sensor feedback

Programming bugbears

The main program

The control program

The RST My Block

The gOS My Block

The GT My Block

The GG My Block

The GM My Block

The EQ My Block

The cntrl My Block

The CHK My Block

Summary

Index

Learning LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3

Copyright © 2015 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: January 2015

Production reference: 1200115

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78398-502-9

www.packtpub.com

Cover image by Gary Garber

Credits

Author

Gary Garber

Reviewers

Barbara Bratzel

Michael duPont

Jeroen Hartsuiker

David Lechner

Diego "Kartones" Muñoz

Geoff Shannon

Commissioning Editor

Akram Hussain

Acquisition Editor

Neha Nagwekar

Content Development Editor

Susmita Sabat

Technical Editor

Vivek Arora

Copy Editor

Laxmi Subramanian

Project Coordinator

Neha Thakur

Proofreaders

Simran Bhogal

Stephen Copestake

Maria Gould

Ameesha Green

Paul Hindle

Indexers

Hemangini Bari

Mariammal Chettiyar

Monica Ajmera Mehta

Graphics

Valentina D'silva

Production Coordinator

Shantanu N. Zagade

Cover Work

Shantanu N. Zagade

About the Author

Gary Garber teaches physics, math, and engineering at Boston University Academy. Gary is the president of the New England Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers and has led dozens of professional development workshops in education at both the local and national levels.

Gary runs the Boston University FIRST Robotics program. He has run and hosted numerous robotics workshops in VEX, Tetrix, and LEGO platforms. He has run dozens of LEGO robotics tournaments and spoken on robotics education at both local and national conferences. His robotics team has worked with Engineers Without Borders, NASA, and the National Science Teachers Association on a variety of engineering and education projects.

He is currently an educational consultant, working to develop new software tools for the classroom, at the Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach, which is a pioneer in LEGO Robotics Education. He is the author of Instant LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3, Packt Publishing. He currently resides in Massachusetts, US. When he is not playing with LEGO, robots, or toy trains, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Catalina, and thei...