Programming a Lego Mindstorm Robot - Essay Example

31 July Building and programming a Lego mindstorm robot Introduction LEGO Mindstorm NXT kit is used in building andprogramming robots. With the kit, users are able to create robots with wide range of functionalities using LEGO building blocks (Kelly). NXT brick is composed of a 32 – bit processor which facilitates operational function of the Lego mindstorm robot. It also makes it alive. Lego Mindstorm kit is composed of 4 sensors that makes it possible for the robot to get inputs from the environment, and three servo motors which facilitates the movement of the robot (Ford). LEGO mindstorm kit is among the many bricks utilized in building and programming a robot. The target audiences of the kit is both children and adults. To facilitate the programming of the kit, a programming language referred to as NXT has been developed by LEGO. This programming language gives everyone the ability to possess full control of the Lego Mindstorm Kit (Valk). The use of this programming language if efficient even for people who lack programming language skills. This project is aimed at constructing a programming a robot that has the ability to pick balls from the ground, carry the ball for at least one meter following a black line drawn on the ground and place the ball in a container 0.50 metres high. A LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT 2.0 kit will be utilized in building and programing the robot. The choice of this kit among other robotics platform was very carefully chosen due to various reasons. The kit fulfilled several requirements. This requirements are; it has an architecture which has made able to be programmed efficiently at different complexity levels. Moreover, the kit is exploitable at many levels of complexity. And finally, it’s simple yet equipped with robust functionality which are expandable. The equipment also has several advantages which include very short start – up time, the setup process does not involve electrical wiring, among other advantages. Background Lego Mindstorm NXT, which is a kit used to program robots, is dated back to 2001 when it was released by LEGO (Nguyen). The kit is advantageous over other robotic programming kits since it has the ability to interact efficiently with the outside world by use of input and output sensors. Moreover, Lego Mindstorm platform has the powerful ability to support a wide variety of sensors which include the EOPD sensors, the compass sensors, the Acceleration sensors, the Gyroscope sensors among many others. With this sensors, the developed robot is able to harvest signals from the environment in order to carry out the predefined tasks. To customize the activities of the robot, NXT programming language is used (Ford). NXT is a robotic programming language that has been developed by LEGO and LabView to aid in programming LEGO mindstorm kit. The platform of NXT programming language is based on programming blocks. With the visual programming language, a single block can be customized by the individual to execute various tasks. To execute many tasks, i.e. a series of actions, several blocks can be chained to facilitate this one after the other. The NXT programming language is composed of several blocks each with designed to perform a designated task. To increase the programming language’s programming efficiency, two relate programming related blocks have been introduced. This introduces a programming environment which is more flexible. One of these blocks is the switch block, which has been designed to perform the functions of IF statement which is found in other programming languages like C++. Another significant block is the Loop block which functions exactly like the Do – while loop in other programming languages. The LEGO Mindstorm NXT kit is composed of technical pieces which has gears, wheels, axles, sensors, motors, NXT building blocks and bricks. The NXT intelligent block is the ‘brain’ of the system. It has the functions of taking inputs from the sensors, interpreting the sensors according to predefined actions, and bringing the output. The sensors which are included in the system include; 1. Ultrasonic Sensors – this has the functions of detecting obstacles that are in its line of sight. Also, this sensor is utilized in measuring distances. The sensors has the ability of measuring distances between it and the obstacles up to two hundred and fifty five centimetres. 2. Light sensors – this type of sensor is utilized detecting light intensity around the robot. It also has the capability of detecting light from reflected surfaces. 3. Touch sensors – This type of sensor is utilized in detecting when it is touched and/or pressed. 4. Sound Sensors – this type of a sensor has the ability to detect sound from various sources. Also, it has the ability to measure the intensity of the detected light. The Kit is also equipped with three servo motors which are very powerful. The motors has links to be connected on the output ports contained on the bricks. Each of the motors is equipped integrated rotation sensors that has the ability to detect the angle the motor has moved. To change the speed of the motor, the amount of power being supplied to it is regulated accordingly (Valk). Methodology The A LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT 2.0 kit was provided. This kit contained all the equipment which were used in the construction of the robot. The parts were then assembled together following the procedures described in the user manual. The finished robot looked like the one shown in the diagram below. To make the Robot move, the following procedure was followed; Using a blank worksheet, a move block was found and added. After inserting the move block, configurations were made to adjust the settings to the desired ones. The settings that were changed include how fast each motor will be moving, and how the motor should stop. Other blocks were to facilitate efficient movement of the robot. This included the wait block which was inserted before the move block. To facilitate the turning of the block, five blocks were added. This blocks included two motor blocks, two wait blocks, and a move block. The blocks were arranged and settings made accordingly. This procedure was repeated to bring other functionality and the final block configuration of the system was as shown in the diagram below. Conclusions and Recommendations The design of the robot using A LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT 2.0 kit was successfully. The constructed robot was able to move along the pre-defined path, which was drawn in black, pick balls, move with the balls and drop the ball in a box. This process was repeated until all the balls had been picked. The process of constructing the robot was easy since A LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT 2.0 kit is supplied with a descriptive manual which is easier to follow. The programming part was the easiest since it involved only using blocks. This is better as compared to other programming languages which involve writing lines of codes. From the process of the project development, it has been found that LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT 2.0 has the following advantages. It was found that the modularity of NXT is very useful since it makes it very expandable and flexible. The ability of the kit to be programmed using a variety of languages makes it more portable. Moreover, there is a possibility of using several operating system and platforms. These include URBI for windows, Linux on Symbian among others. Despite the successful nature of the project, there were some small problems with the software. This include the robustness of the software, the presentation of some programing blocks, and the interface. To facilitate easy use of the kit, the above stated problems should be eliminated. Bibliography Ford, Jerry Lee. Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 for Teens. Stamford: Cengage Learning, 2007. Kelly, James Floyd. LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0: The King’s Treasure. New York: Apress, 2009. Print. Nguyen, Khuong A. A case study on the usability of NXT-G programming language. New York, 31 July 2013. Electronic. Valk, Laurens. The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 Discovery Book. San Francisco: William Pollock, 2010. Print. Read More