COLLEGE HOUSE ENTERPRISES, LLC

engineering with
LEGO bricks
and

Robolab

Third Edition

The unofficial guide to ROBOLAB 2.9^TM  

Eric Wang

In consultation with

Bernard Catt

Eric's comments about the book:

Whether you are an engineering student, a science teacher, or an FLL competitor, I’ve tried to write a reference guide that you will find useful. This edition has been completely updated for the NXT. This edition contains over 450 figures and 200 sample programs. There are no RCX examples in this edition. The book does not assume you have any prior knowledge of ROBOLAB or the RCX. Online (color) versions of all figures and downloadable versions of the programs are available at www.me.unr.edu/lego.

 This edition retains what I call “the National Geographic approach” of the previous editions. The main idea is that you can learn a lot from this book by just looking over the figures and captions.

Owners of previous editions will recognize many of the examples. Rest assured, however, that every program in this book was tested and revised for the NXT. A long list of new material has also been added to address features the NXT has that the RCX does not.

Looking back, I’ve come to realize that this book is very different from the typical LEGO^® robotics book. It’s not like any other textbooks either. It’s not the kind of book you just open up and start reading. There aren’t any step by step building or programming instructions. So what kind of book is this?  I’ve come to describe this book (and the previous editions) as the dictionary for ROBOLAB. You open it when you want to know what a particular function does. You open it when you want to learn a new skill. You open it when you need more information about a topic you didn’t quite understand in class. It’s a reference book, not a textbook.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: LEGO^® & ROBOLAB Basics

1.1      Organization of This Book.

1.2     Chapter Objectives

1.3     Engineering and the Design Process

1.4     Lego^® Mindstorms Hardware

1.4.1        The Programmable Brick: the RCX

1.4.2        Output and Input Devices

1.5      Software choices

1.6      ROBOLAB Software

1.6.1        Administrator

1.6.2        Installing Firmware

1.6.3        Resetting the NXT

1.6.4        Programmer

1.6.5        Investigator

1.6.6        ROBOLAB Version 2.9.3

1.7      Design Skills

1.7.1        Tips for Building with LEGO® Bricks

1.7.2        Gears and Axles

1.7.3        Getting Around on Wheels

1.7.4        Getting Around on Legs

1.7.5        Bumpers

1.7.6        Grippers and Claws

1.7.7        Check your Progress

1.8      Creativity & Aesthetics

1.8.1        Creative Blocks

1.8.2        Structured Creativity

1.9      Additional Resources

1.9.1        LEGOEngineering.com

1.9.2        The Robotics Academy Products

1.9.3        Official ROBOLAB Materials and Information

1.9.4        Where to buy

1.9.5        Groups

1.9.6        Resources

1.9.7        Examples and Cool Projects

1.10    References and Further Reading

1.11    Design Challenges

1.11.1      Team Communication

1.11.2      Drag Race

1.11.3      South Pointing Chariot

1.11.4      Get Over It

1.11.5      Heavy Lifting

1.11.6      Crash Test Dummy

1.12    Summary

 CHAPTER 2: GREEN LEVEL

2.1      Green Challenges

2.1.1        Going the Distance

2.1.2        Drag Race

2.1.3        Blind Man’s Cane

2.1.4        The Steepest Incline

2.1.5        Tug-of-War

2.1.6        Tunnel Vision

2.1.7        Wallace & Gromitä

2.1.8        Line Follower

2.1.9        Speed Walking

2.1.10      How Fast is That?

2.2      Pilot Basics

2.3      The Basic Pilot Badge

2.3.1        Outputs

2.3.2        The “Wait For” Functions

2.3.3        Modifiers

2.3.4        Viewing Sensor and Motor Settings

2.3.5        Sample Pilot Level 4 Programs

2.3.6        Notes About Using the LEGO Light Sensor

2.3.7        Notes About Using the LEGO Ultrasonic Sensor

2.3.8        Steps, Run Mode, Printing, and Saving

2.4      Relation to Text-Based Programming

2.5      Limitations of Pilot Programming

2.6      Inventor Basics

2.6.1        The Functions Palette

2.6.2        The Tools Palette

2.6.3        NXT Detective

2.6.4        Getting Help

2.7      The Basic Inventor Badge

2.7.1        Outputs

2.7.2        Behaviors             

2.7.3        The “Wait For” Functions

2.7.4        Modifiers

2.7.5        Getting to the Source

2.7.6        Sample Programs

2.7.7        What’s Next?

2.8      The Basic Programming Badge

2.8.1        Making it Look Nice

2.8.2        Making it Understandable

2.8.3        Figuring out What Went Wrong

2.8.4        Using the LCD to Help Debug

 CHAPTER 3: WHITE LEVEL

3.1      White Challenges

3.1.1        LEGO^® Cockroach

3.1.2        Wall Follower

3.1.3        Remote Control

3.1.4        LEGO Brick Recycler

3.1.5        SumoBot

3.1.6        Sizing up the Competition

3.1.7        Obstacle Course               

3.1.8        Stupid Robot Tricks

3.1.9        Fetch the Light

3.1.10      Robot Zoo

3.1.11      There and back again

3.1.12      Swinging with Gravity

3.1.13      Going the Distance with Data Logging

3.1.14      Tomb Raider

3.2      The Structures Badge

3.2.1        Jumps

3.2.2        Loops

3.2.3        Forks

3.2.4        Looking Forward: Advanced Structures

3.3      The Containers badge

3.3.1        The Basic Containers

3.3.2        Integer math

3.3.3        The String Containers

3.3.4        Container Functions

3.3.5        Generic Container

3.3.6        Container Wait For, Loop , and Fork Functions

3.3.7        Container Examples

3.3.8        Looking Forward: Advanced Containers

3.4      The Tasks Badge

3.4.1        Tasks Splits

3.4.2        Conflicts, Containers & Jumps

3.4.3        Starting and Stopping Tasks

3.4.4        Looking Forward: Advanced Tasks

3.5      Investigator Basics

3.6      The Basic Investigator Badge

3.6.1        Program Area

3.6.2        Upload Area

3.6.3        View and Compare Area

3.6.4        Compute Area

3.6.5        Journal Area

CHAPTER 4: BLACK LEVEL

4.1      Black Challenges

4.1.1        LEGO Slot Machine

4.1.2        The Sound of Music

4.1.3        Feeding Frenzy

4.1.4        Balancing Robot

4.1.5        Virtual Spring

4.1.6        Stay Away From the Light

4.2      the Events badge

4.2.1        What’s an event?

4.2.2        How to program an event

4.2.3        Stopping and re-starting event monitoring

4.2.4        Multiple events

4.2.5        Events and tasks

4.2.6        Event Examples

4.2.7        Looking Forward: Advanced Events

4.3      The Music Badge

4.3.1        Basic Notes

4.3.2        Piano Player

4.3.3        Creating and Playing Sound Files

4.4      The Direct Mode Badge

4.4.1        Begin and End Direct Mode

4.4.2        Wait for RCX (NXT) to be in view

4.4.3        Read Value

4.4.4        RCX (NXT) Battery Power

4.4.5        Running Direct Mode on top of Remote Mode

4.4.6        No Internet Mode for NXT

4.4.7        Looking Forward: Advanced Direct Mode

4.5      The Advanced Output Badge

4.5.1        Advanced Output sub-palette

4.5.2        Controlling Motor Power

4.5.3        Pulse Width Modulation

4.5.4        Power versus Speed

4.5.5        Motor Forward or Back String

CHAPTER 5: BLUE LEVEL

5.1      Black Challenges

5.1.1        How Fast is That (revisited)?

5.1.2        Feeding Frenzy (revisited)

5.1.3        Brick Recycler (revisited)

5.1.4        Brick Recycler #3

5.1.5        Dice Jukebox

5.1.6        Dice Checker

5.2      The Advanced Structures Badge

5.2.1        Loop Counter

5.2.2        Creating and Using Subroutines

5.2.3        Creating and Using SubVI’s

5.2.4        Subroutine versus SubVI

5.3      The Advanced Containers Badge

5.3.1        Formula & Evaluate Expression Containers

5.3.2        Local and Global Variables

5.3.3        The Container’s Container

5.4      The Advanced Tasks badge

5.5      The Advanced Data Logging Badge

5.5.1        Step 1: Initialize the Sensor

5.5.2        Step 2: Start Data Logging

5.5.3        Step 3: Stop Data Logging

5.5.4        Uploading Data

5.5.5        Data Logging Functions and Modifiers

5.5.6        Sampling at Irregular Intervals

5.5.7        Saving Multiple Data Log Files

5.5.8        Data Analysis: Compute Tools 4 and 5

5.6      The Camera badge

5.6.1        Launching the Vision Center

5.6.2        An Electronic Cookie Jar

5.6.3        Seek the Brightest Spot

5.6.4        Counting non-Red Bricks

5.6.5        The Image Window

5.6.6        Communication Speed

5.6.7        Image Processing Methods

5.6.8        The Image Plane

5.6.9        How to Define a New Sensor

5.6.10      Additional Vision Center Help

5.7      The Basic G-Code Badge

5.7.1        Your First VI

5.7.2        Using the Front Panel in Compute Tools 4 & 5

5.7.3        Using the Front Panel in Programmer 4 & 5

CHAPTER 6: RED LEVEL

6.1      Red Challenges

6.1.1        Fast Line Follower

6.1.2        Whistling Brothers

6.1.3        Copy Cat

6.1.4        Haptic System

6.2      The Advanced Events Badge

6.2.1        Event Fork and Event Container

6.2.2        Forcing and Clearing Events

6.2.3        Advanced Event Characteristics

6.2.4        Checking your Progress

6.2.5        Event State Container

6.2.6        The LEGO^® Cockroach.

6.3      NXT Begin & Buttons Badge

6.3.1        The NXT Begin Command

6.3.2        The NXT Buttons

6.3.3        The Change View Function

6.3.4        Controlling the NXT Buttons

6.4      The Advanced Direct Mode badge

6.4.1        Managing Files

6.4.2        Using Direct Mode with G Code

6.5      The LASM Badge

6.5.1        Viewing the LASM Code

6.5.2        The VBrick_NXT Window

Eric's third edition is off the press and is now available.  The book will be priced at $36.00.  Send us your name and address and we will ship you a copy.