Re: [ProgSoc] Lego Robots - use Linux!

["Adam Bewsher" <adam@nospam.bewsher.com>]

Hi,
I also did this last year.  Fun, fun, fun!  Would have liked to have a lego
robot war but we didn't own the kits so we had to be careful :-) (plastic
melting flame throwers were out of the question)

The "brick" is a nifty little thing.  I didn't use legos, I used NQC (Not
quite C)  it doesn't require a firmware upgrade of the brick so programs can
co-exist with the GUI-built (Mindstorms RIS) programs.  Apparently legOS is
a bit faster, but NQC is _much_ simpler to start using... oh yeah, and legOS
only runs on linux (not that that's a bad thing, it's just that all the PCs
at the show are wintel)

Anyway, languages asside, I found the best thing with doing this was
"improving" the hardware.  As Jay said, there are 3 inputs and 3 outputs and
very limited sensors supplied.  I've built a few sensors and a block that
gives me 3 digital inputs on one of the "blocks" 3 inputs. (handy for having
3 touch sensors on one input)

My favourite senson is a stereo light detector.  It can differentiate
between light coming from left right and center.  With one input, the
"block" can steer itself towards light (or away, or whatever)

You can find heaps of stuff on the net for these things, or I might be able
to make you some if you need them (if I'm not busy).

I recommend doing it.

Adam
PS If you're not good at programming, then this will teach you.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jay Banyer" <jbanyer@nospam.progsoc.uts.edu.au>
To: <progsoc@nospam.progsoc.uts.edu.au>
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2001 1:25 PM
Subject: [ProgSoc] Lego Robots - use Linux!


> Hey all. I was on the team that built the noughts-and-crosses robot last
> year. It was an enjoyable challenge.
>
> To spark your interest, here are some technical details of the Lego
> Mindstorms kit:
>
> CPU: 16MHz Hitachi
> Ram: about 32Kb
> Inputs: 3 analog
> Outputs: 3 analog
>
> Supplied devices:
> Input: 2 touch sensors, 1 light sensor
> Output: 2 motors
> We also connected an electromagnet which we picked up from Dick Smith.
>
> The development environment that comes with it from Lego is very
> limited. We used 'legos', which allowed you to write programs in C++ using
> gcc. These are compiled to the Hitachi architecture and transfered to the
> 'Brick' (control unit) using an infrared link. Our entire program was
> about 7K, most of which was navigation and control code. You can do a fair
> bit with 32K!
>
> See http://www.noga.de/legOS/ for legOS info. It's open source.
>
> I also discovered http://lejos.sourceforge.net/ which is a Java VM for the
> Brick.
>
> The Brick can operate completely independantly (as ours did) or
> controlled in real-time with a computer via the infrared link. Two Bricks
> can also talk to each other via infrared (they can send as well as
> receive). I haven't seen that done, but the possibilities are interesting.
>
> Plus you get paid!
>
> Cheers,
> Jay.
>
>
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