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    Programming Lego Mindstorms NXT
    Programming Lego Mindstorms NXT
    Programming Lego Mindstorms NXT
    Ebook319 pages2 hours

    Programming Lego Mindstorms NXT

    By Owen Bishop

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    About this ebook

    Teach your robot new tricks! With this projects-based approach you can program your Mindstorms NXT robot to solve a maze, build a house, run an obstacle course, and many other activities. Along the way you will learn the basics of programming structures and techniques using NXT-G and Microsoft VPL.

    For hobbyists, and students working on robot projects, Bishop provides the background and tools to program your robot for tasks that go beyond the simple routines provided with the robot kit. The programs range in complexity from simple contact avoidance and path following, to programs generating some degree of artificial intelligence
    • a how-to guide for programming your robot, using NXT-G and Microsoft VPL
    • ten robot-specific projects show how to extend your robot's capabilities beyond the manufacturer's provided software. Examples of projects include: Maze solver, Robot House Builder, Search (obstacle avoidance), Song and Dance Act
    • flowcharts and data flow diagrams are used to illustrate how to develop programs
    • introduces basic programming structures
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSyngress
    Release dateApr 18, 2011
    ISBN9780080569963
    Programming Lego Mindstorms NXT
    Author

    Owen Bishop

    Author of over 70 books, mostly electronic and many in the field of science education. Contributor to numerous electronic magazines such as Everyday Practical Electronics, Elektor Electronics, Electronics Australia and Electronics Today International. Former Science Education Advisor in developing countries as staff member of the British Council and as a part of the UN Educational and Scientific Organisation.

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      Book preview

      Programming Lego Mindstorms NXT - Owen Bishop

      Programming Lego Mindstorms NXT

      Owen Bishop

      Copyright

      Copyright © 2008 by Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved.

      Elsevier, Inc., the author(s), and any person or firm involved in the writing, editing, or production (collectively Makers) of this book (the Work) do not guarantee or warrant the results to be obtained from the Work.

      There is no guarantee of any kind, expressed or implied, regarding the Work or its contents. The Work is sold AS IS and WITHOUT WARRANTY. You may have other legal rights, which vary from state to state.

      In no event will Makers be liable to you for damages, including any loss of profits, lost savings, or other incidental or consequential damages arising out from the Work or its contents. Because some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitation may not apply to you.

      You should always use reasonable care, including backup and other appropriate precautions, when working with computers, networks, data, and files.

      Syngress Media®, Syngress®, Career Advancement Through Skill Enhancement®, Ask the Author UPDATE®, and Hack Proofing®, are registered trademarks of Elsevier, Inc. Syngress: The Definition of a Serious Security Library™, Mission Critical™, and The Only Way to Stop a Hacker is to Think Like One™ are trademarks of Elsevier, Inc. Brands and product names mentioned in this book are trademarks or service marks of their respective companies.

      PUBLISHED BY

      Elsevier, Inc.

      30 Corporate Drive

      Burlington, MA 01803

      Programming Lego Mindstorms NXT

      Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher, with the exception that the program listings may be entered, stored, and executed in a computer system, but they may not be reproduced for publication.

      Printed in the United States of America

      1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

      Page Layout and Art: SPi Publishing Services

      Copy Editor: Judy Eby

      For information on rights, translations, and bulk sales, contact Matt Pedersen, Commercial Sales Director and Rights, at Syngress Publishing; email m.pedersen@elsevier.com.

      Brief Table of Contents

      Copyright

      Brief Table of Contents

      Table of Contents

      List of Figures

      List of Tables

      Author

      Chapter 1. Robots and Programs

      Chapter 2. About NXT-G Programs

      Chapter 3. Data

      Chapter 4. Loops

      Chapter 5. Switches and Other Topics

      Chapter 6. Using the Light Sensor

      Chapter 7. Using the Touch Sensor and the NXT Buttons

      Chapter 8. Using the Ultrasonic Sensor

      Chapter 9. Sounds Received and Emitted

      Chapter 10. The Magnetic Compass Sensor

      Chapter 11. More Mathematics

      Chapter 12. Navigation

      Chapter 13. Games Robots Play

      Chapter 14. Databases for Robots

      Table of Contents

      Copyright

      Brief Table of Contents

      Table of Contents

      List of Figures

      List of Tables

      Author

      Chapter 1. Robots and Programs

      Introduction

      What is a Program?

      Designing a Robot

      Specify the Robot's Environment

      Intelligent or Smart?

      Summary

      Chapter 2. About NXT-G Programs

      Introduction

      Creating a Program

      First Steps

      Out of Memory?

      Coming for a Spin?

      Tying it Together

      Chapter 3. Data

      Introduction

      Sources of Data

      Variables

      Arithmetic Operators

      Logical Operators

      Flag Variables

      Chapter 4. Loops

      Introduction

      Outside Events

      Time Limit

      Counting the Loops

      Dance Some More

      Use Loops to Make Actions Repeat

      Another Way to Use the Loop Counter

      Logical Conclusions

      Use a Loop (or a Wait Block) to Wait for an Event to Occur

      Nested Loops

      The Wait Block

      Chapter 5. Switches and Other Topics

      The Switch Block

      Switch Blocks Direct Execution Along Alternative Pathways

      Simultaneous Processing

      Diagnostic Programming

      Chapter 6. Using the Light Sensor

      Introduction

      Light Sensor Directed Downward

      Lined in

      Line Follower

      Edge Follower

      Light Sensor Directed Upward

      Housefly

      Light Sensor Directed Forward

      Lightfinder1

      LightFinder2

      Almost an Interrupt

      LightFinder3

      LightFinder4

      Summary

      Chapter 7. Using the Touch Sensor and the NXT Buttons

      Introduction

      Waiting for Contact

      Bumper

      Waiting for Input

      Scanning the NXT Buttons

      Entering Numbers

      Chapter 8. Using the Ultrasonic Sensor

      Introduction

      Avoidance Routine for Alpha Rex

      Ultrasonic Search

      Chapter 9. Sounds Received and Emitted

      Introduction

      Start and Stop

      Start, Stop, and Turn

      One Clap or Two?

      Playing a Tune (with a Little Dance)

      Choreography

      Song Snippets

      Dance Snippets

      Chapter 10. The Magnetic Compass Sensor

      Introduction

      Heading in the Right Direction

      Polygon

      Circle

      Chapter 11. More Mathematics

      Introduction

      Floating Point Arithmetic

      Calculating Cosines

      Calculating Sines

      Square Root

      Factorials

      Combinations

      X modulo Y

      Modulo Counting

      Chapter 12. Navigation

      Introduction

      Distance Traveled

      Magnetic Compass

      Edge Follower 1

      No-go Response to a Line

      Steering Alpha Rex

      Marching Orders

      Rex On Line

      Rex On Edge

      Pathfinder

      Cosine Rule

      Chapter 13. Games Robots Play

      Introduction

      Maze Runner—Version 1

      Maze Runner—Version 2

      Maze Runner—Version 3

      Maze Learner

      Scissors, Paper, Stone

      Signalling by Semaphore

      Magic

      The Program

      Chapter 14. Databases for Robots

      Introduction

      Lookup Table for Weekdays

      Writable Lookup Table

      Another Way of Using a Lookup Table

      Reading Data from a File Access Block

      Acknowledgements

      List of Figures

      Figure 1.1. This is the computer screen during a NXT-G programming session. On the left-hand side is the palette from which you drag the icons that represent the programming blocks. The icons are assembled into a program on the grid of the working area. Below the working area is the configuration pane, which displays the detailed settings of the currently selected block.

      Figure 1.2. This version of the Tribot is equipped with bumper sensor, to detect objects that it runs into, and also has a light sensor pointing forward with which it can seek out light sources in the room.

      Figure 1.3. A NXT-G program consists of a number of programming blocks, which are executed in the order in which they are placed on the sequence beam. Sometimes the blocks are linked by data wires, which transmit data from block to block. This program switches on the drive motors for 1 second. Four seconds later, it starts to switch motor A on and off every 2 seconds.

      Figure 1.4. The gear wheels on the upper icon indicate that it is a move block. The lower icon is obviously a sound sensor block.

      Figure 1.5. Equipping a robot. This robot is going to be mobile, so it needs drive wheels with motors. The rear wheel is a caster. The robot has an ultrasonic sensor for navigation, and a bumper for detecting obstacles. It has an arm with a gripper for handling objects and a microphone for detecting spoken commands. Like all robots, it must have at least one microcontroller or microprocessor. To make the whole system operational it must have a program.

      Figure 1.6. The maze for training the flatworm is made of glass and filled with water. It has only one junction. If food is always placed in the left arm of the maze, the flatworm soon learns to turn left at the junction.

      Figure 2.1. Creating a program. A wait block is being dragged from the palette on the left and dropped on to the end of the sequence beam. The beam expands automatically to make room for it. The block will provide 1 second of silence after the second tone has been played.

      Figure 2.2. This rear view of the Quickstart buggy shows the two drive wheels and the rear caster wheel. The advantage of this arrangement is the stable three-point contact with the surface, which does not have to be absolutely flat.

      Figure 2.3. The icon for the move block shows the main settings, but you have to display the configuration pane (see Figure 2.4) to find out the details.

      Figure 2.4. The configuration pane of the move block shows all the settings, which you can change to suit your program.

      Figure 2.5. The Quickstart buggy is ready to run its first program.

      Figure 2.6. In the working area, the first program looks like this. Comments have been added to show some of the settings, but you do not need not include them. Just check the configuration panel of each block to make sure that you have edited the settings as specified in the comments.

      Figure 2.7. The next version of the program is like the first but ends in a spin.

      Figure 2.8. Data wires carry information between blocks. Here, a yellow wire carries the light intensity reading (numeric data) from the sensor block to the math block. The second wire, which is green, carries a logical signal from the math block to the move block. The signal controls the direction in which the motors turn.

      Figure 2.9. The program in Figure 2.8 can be made more compact by contracting the long data hubs. The software automatically re-routes the data wires. You can expand the hubs again if you want to add more data wires later.

      Figure 3.1. This version of the program in Figure 2.9 does the same thing but uses only two blocks. The math block of Figure 2.9 is redundant.

      Figure 3.2. A useful program snippet for displaying numbers. Make it more compact by retracting the long data hub. Make it easier to use by turning the three blocks on the right into a My Block.

      Figure 3.3. A variable block and its configuration pane. The three blocks listed in the menu are created automatically. When you create new variable blocks they appear in this menu. The menu is used for selecting the name of a block. For instance, the block in the working area has been designated as Logic 1 by clicking on that name in the list.

      Figure 4.1. This musical score is an example of a loop that is repeated once. The two pairs of dots on the right tell the musician to go back and play part of the score again. By contrast, a loop block usually repeats more than once, perhaps many times or even forever.

      Figure 4.2. This program runs forever in its loop.

      Figure 4.3. The loop in this program repeats until the orange Enter button is pressed.

      Figure 4.4. This loop repeats until the light intensity is greater than 50.

      Figure 4.5. The loop block (left) is ready to receive some of the blocks to be transferred from the right.

      Figure 4.6. Ready to dance some more! We use a loop to repeat a sequence of actions. When the loop has repeated five times the controller leaves the loop and plays the Applause file.

      Figure 4.7. Using the counter output of a loop block to generate a tone of gradually increasing pitch.

      Figure 4.8. Using a logical signal to end a loop. When both sensors are receiving light, the robot stops bleeping and thanks you.

      Figure 4.9. Nested loops.

      Figure 4.10. To start with, a wait block is enabled to receive input from a touch sensor, as its icon shows.

      Figure 5.1. Demonstrating how switch blocks work. The robot says light or dark, depending on whether or not its light sensor is receiving light.

      Figure 5.2. Configuring a switch block to be controlled by a numeric value.

      Figure 5.3. Configuring a switch block to be controlled by a logic value.

      Figure 5.4. An example of simultaneous processing.

      Figure 5.5. Checking the progress of a calculation by displaying the intermediate results.

      Figure 5.6. A useful my block that displays numeric results. This was generated from the program illustrated in Figure 5.5.

      Figure 5.7. This program indicates which branch is being followed by saying light or dark.

      Figure 5.8. A program module for reading logical values when debugging.

      Figure 5.9. The configuration pane when setting the program of Figure 5.8.

      Figure 6.1. The light sensor showing the photodiode (top) and the illuminating LED (bottom).

      Figure 6.2. The light sensor's icon and configuration pane.

      Figure 6.3. The extended data hub has seven single or double data plugs. The double plugs are for inputs, receiving the signal on the left. They also relay it unchanged to the corresponding plugs on the right. The single plugs (right side only) are for outputs from the processing circuits of the block.

      Figure 6.4. When mounted in the downwardly directed position, the diodes are about 1 centimeter above the surface.

      Figure 6.5. Another view of the downwardly directed light sensor.

      Figure 6.6. The light sensor is ready to mount on the front beam of the Quickstart.

      Figure 6.7. Ready to mount, another view.

      Figure 6.8. The LinedIn program prevents the robot from crossing a line.

      Figure 6.9. In the Line Follower program the robot actually follows one edge of the line.

      Figure 6.10. The Edge Follower program is simple and works well on paths that curve mainly in one direction.

      Figure 6.11. While the housefly (Tribot) is peacefully feeding on the cake icing, a branch of the program is continuously on the alert for the approach of a fly swatter.

      Figure 6.12. A forward pointing

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