LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Discovery Book

400 Pages·175.591 MB·English

by  Laurens Valk.

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World oF lego® o a beginner’s guide to building and
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LEGo MiNDsTorMs has changed the way we think about N The SNATCH3R, a robotic arm that can autonomously
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robotics by making it possible for anyone to build real, working find, grab, lift, and move the infrared beacon
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robots. The latest MiNDsTorMs set, Ev3, is more powerful N LAVA R3X, a humanoid robot that walks and talks
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than ever, and The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Discovery Book
More than 150 building and programming challenges
is the complete, beginner-friendly guide you need to get s
throughout encourage you to think creatively and apply what
started. ®
you’ve learned to invent your own robots. With The LEGO
Begin with the basics as you build and program a e
MINDSTORMS EV3 Discovery Book as your guide, you’ll be
simple robot to experiment with motors, sensors, and Ev3 V
building your own out-of-this-world creations in no time!
programming. Then you’ll move on to a series of increasingly 3
sophisticated robots that will show you how to work with
about the author D
advanced programming techniques like data wires, variables,
i
and custom-made programming blocks. you’ll also learn Laurens valk is a member of the MiNDsTorMs community s
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essential building techniques like how to use beams, gears, Partners, a select group of MiNDsTorMs enthusiasts who
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and connector blocks effectively in your own designs. help test and develop new MiNDsTorMs products. one
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Master the possibilities of the Ev3 set as you build and of his robot designs is featured on the Ev3 packaging as
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program: a bonus project. His previous work, the best-selling LEGO
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MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 Discovery Book, introduced tens of
N The EXPLOR3R, a wheeled vehicle that uses sensors to y
thousands of beginners worldwide to the powerful world
navigate around a room and follow lines
of LEGo MiNDsTorMs robotics. He blogs about robots at B
N The FORMULA EV3 RACE CAR, a streamlined remote-
http://robotsquare.com/. o
controlled race car
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N ANTY, a six-legged walking creature that adapts its RequiRements: oNE LEGo MiNDsTorMs Ev3 sET
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behavior to its surroundings (LEGo sET #31313)
tHis Book is not AUtHoriZed or endorsed By tHe lego groUP.
For Ages 1o+
Price: $34.95 ($36.95 CDN) sHelVe in: RobotiCs/Hobbies
valk
THE FINEST IN GEEK ENTERTAINMENT™
www.nostarch.com
quick building reference chart (1:1) LeGO® minDstORms® eV3 (#31313) parts list
15
12x 5
12x
3
13 2x 4x 5x 4x
10x 7
22x 3
3 1x 9
11 6x 4x 4 1x 1x 2x 2x
3
11 3x 4
8x
4
9 1x 1x 13 4x 5 4x 2x 3x 3x
4 4x 5.5
9x
15
5 1x 1x 2x
6
7 4x 2x
5.5
2x 1x 9x 7 4x 6x 4x
4x
6 Long / 50 cm 8
5 2x
7 9 8x 14x 17x
6x
8 1x 1x 4x 10x
3 1x 2x 4x 4x
9 Medium / 35 cm
8x 6x 2x 2x 3x 6x
sensor operation modes 2x 1x 4x
4x 1x 4x
Short / 25 cm 4x
touch sensor color sensor 11x 9x
12x 95x 38x 12x 2x 2x
4x
28x 10x
2x 1x 1x
ambient light
state color reflected light intensity 12x
intensity 4x 4x
2x
infrared sensor
4x 6x
2x 1x 1x
6x 6x
beacon
4x 4x
heading
2x 3x 3x
beacon
proximity 1x 1x 3x 6x 3x 3x
proximity remote
THe lego® mindsTorms® eV3 discoVery Book

THe lego®
mindsTorms® eV3
discoVery Book
a beginner’s guide to building and
programming robots
laurens valk
THe lego® mindsTorms® eV3 discoVery Book. Copyright © 2014 by Laurens Valk.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written
permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.
Printed in USA
First printing
18 17 16 15 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
ISBN-10: 1-59327-532-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-59327-532-7
Publisher: William Pollock
Production Editor: Serena Yang
Interior Design: Octopod Studios
Developmental Editor: Seph Kramer
Technical Reviewer: Claude Baumann
Copyeditor: Julianne Jigour
Compositors: Riley Hoffman and Alison Law
Proofreader: Paula L. Fleming
Indexer: BIM Indexing & Proofreading Services
For information on distribution, translations, or bulk sales, please contact No Starch Press, Inc. directly:
No Starch Press, Inc.
245 8th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
phone: [phone]; fax: [phone]; [email protected]; www.nostarch.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the first edition as follows:
Valk, Laurens.
The LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 discovery book : a beginner’s guide to building and programming robots / Laurens Valk.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59327-211-1
ISBN-10: 1-59327-211-1
1. Robots--Design and construction--Popular works. 2. Robots--Programming--Popular works. 3. LEGO toys. I. Title.
TJ211.15.V353 2010
629.8’92--dc22
2010011157
No Starch Press and the No Starch Press logo are registered trademarks of No Starch Press, Inc. Other product and com-
pany names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than use a trademark symbol
with every occurrence of a trademarked name, we are using the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the
trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.
LEGO®, MINDSTORMS®, the brick configuration, and the minifigure are trademarks of the LEGO Group, which does not
sponsor, authorize, or endorse this book.
The information in this book is distributed on an “As Is” basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been taken
in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor No Starch Press, Inc. shall have any liability to any person or entity
with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in it.
about the author
Laurens Valk is a robotics engineer based in the Netherlands, where he earned a bachelor’s
degree in Mechanical Engineering from Delft University of Technology. He is a member of
the MINDSTORMS Community Partners (MCP), a select group of MINDSTORMS enthusiasts
who help test and develop new MINDSTORMS products. He started building robots with
the EV3 system a year before its 2013 release, and one of his designs appears on the EV3
packaging as an official bonus robot.
Laurens enjoys designing robots and creating tutorials to build and program them, so
that robot fans around the world can re-create the designs and learn more about robotics.
He has worked on several LEGO robotics books, including the best-selling first edition of this
book, The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 Discovery Book (No Starch Press, 2010). He blogs
about robots at http://robotsquare.com/.
about the
technical reviewer
Claude Baumann has taught advanced LEGO MINDSTORMS robotics in after-school classes
for 15 years. He created ULTIMATE ROBOLAB, a cross-compiler environment that allowed
graphical programming of LEGO RCX firmware, and with it conceived the world’s only self-
replicating program for the LEGO RCX (some call it a virus). More recently, he participated
as a MINDSTORMS Community Partner (MCP) during the development of the new EV3
Intelligent Brick. He has been the assessor of various high school robotics projects and is the
author of Eureka! Problem Solving with LEGO Robotics (NTS Press, 2013), several articles,
and conference presentations. His special interest is robotic sound localization. The head of
a network of high-school boarding institutions in Luxembourg (EU), Claude is married with
three children and three marvelous grandchildren.
acknowledgments
First and foremost, I’d like to thank the readers of the first Thanks to the LEGO Group for developing such an inspi-
edition. Your countless emails and comments from all over the rational and educational robotics kit, and for involving the
world have been a true inspiration for writing this book, and community early in the design process. Thanks to the LEGO
many new topics were inspired by your feedback. MINDSTORMS EV3 team, including Camilla, David, Flemming,
The philosophy and structure of this book is the same Henrik, Lars Joe, Lasse, Lee, Linda, Marie, Steven, and Willem.
as that of the first edition, but because of the transition from Thanks to the LDraw community for developing the tools
LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT to EV3, it was essentially rewritten required to create the building instructions in this book. In
from scratch. This was only possible thanks to the help of many particular, thanks to Philippe Hurbain for creating 3D LDraw
talented people. models of the EV3 components, to Michael Lachmann for cre-
Many thanks go to Claude Baumann for reviewing the ating MLCad, to Travis Cobbs for creating LDView, and to Kevin
book for technical accuracy and for suggesting improvements. Clague for developing LPub 4 and LSynth. Also, thanks to John
Thanks also to Marc-André Bazergui, Martijn Boogaarts, Hansen for creating the EV3 screen capture tool.
Kenneth Madsen, and Xander Soldaat for testing prototypes Finally, thanks to my friends and family for your support
of the robots featured in the book as early as 2012. throughout the lengthy process of writing this book. Most of all,
Further thanks to the people at No Starch Press for mak- thanks to Fabiënne for your endless encouragement to finish
ing the first edition a success and for working with me on this this project. Thank you—you’re the best.
new edition. Thanks to my publisher William Pollock, to my
editor Seph Kramer, to Serena Yang for keeping the project on
schedule, to Riley Hoffman and Alison Law for laying out the
raw text on colorful pages, and to Leigh Poehler for dealing
with all my business-related questions over the past years.
brief contents
introduction ........................................................................................................................................................................xxi
part I getting started
chapter 1 preparing your EV3 set ...........................................................................................................................3
chapter 2 building your first robot...........................................................................................................................9
chapter 3 creating and modifying programs ......................................................................................................25
chapter 4 working with programming blocks: action blocks ..........................................................................35
chapter 5 waiting, repeating, my blocks, and multitasking.............................................................................49
part II programming robots with sensors
chapter 6 understanding sensors ..........................................................................................................................61
chapter 7 using the color sensor ............................................................................................................................75
chapter 8 using the infrared sensor ......................................................................................................................89
chapter 9 using the brick buttons and rotation sensors ..................................................................................97
part III robot-building techniques
chapter 10 building with beams, axles, connector blocks, and motors .......................................................105
chapter 11 building with gears ..............................................................................................................................121
part IV vehicle and animal robots
chapter 12 Formula EV3: a racing robot ..............................................................................................................141
chapter 13 ANTY: the robotic ant ...........................................................................................................................171
part V creating advanced programs
chapter 14 using data wires ....................................................................................................................................199
chapter 15 using data operations blocks and my blocks with data wires ..................................................227
chapter 16 using constants and variables ...........................................................................................................245
chapter 17 playing games on the EV3 .................................................................................................................253
part VI machine and humanoid robots
chapter 18 the SNATCH3R: the autonomous robotic arm .............................................................................263
chapter 19 LAVA R3X: the humanoid that walks and talks ............................................................................311
appendix A troubleshooting programs, the EV3 brick, and wireless connections .....................................351
appendix B creating on brick programs ................................................................................................................359
index ..................................................................................................................................................................................365