The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Laboratory: Build, Program, and Experiment with Five Wicked Cool Robots!

436 Pages·2013·77.56 MB·English

by  Daniele Benedettelli

T tHe lego® mindstorms®
serioUs H
E
eV3 lABorAtorY
l
mindstorms.
e
g
build, program, and experiment with
serioUs FUn. o
®

m five wicked cool robots!
i
n
d daniele benedettelli
The LEGo® MINDSTorMS® EV3 set offers so many new N SUP3R CAR, a rear-wheel-drive armored car with an
s
and exciting features that it can be hard to know where to ergonomic two-lever remote control
t
begin. With out the help of an expert, it could take months N SENTIN3L, a walking tripod that can record and execute
o
of experimentation to learn how to use the advanced color-coded sequences of commands
mechanisms and numerous programming features. N T-R3X, a fearsome bipedal robot that will find and r
In The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Laboratory, author chase down prey m
Daniele benedettelli, robotics expert and member of the
With The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Laboratory as your guide, s
elite LEGo MINDSTorMS Expert Panel, shows you how to
you’ll become an EV3 master in no time. ®
use gears, beams, motors, sensors, and programming blocks
e
to create sophisticated robots that can avoid obstacles, walk
about the author V
on two legs, and even demonstrate autonomous behavior.
3
you’ll also dig into related math, engineering, and robotics Daniele benedettelli is known worldwide for his original
concepts that will help you create your own amazing robots. LEGo robots, including his rubik’s Cube solvers and
L
Programming experiments through out will challenge you, his humanoid robots. as a LEGo MINDSTorMS Com-
a
while a series of comics and countless illustrations inform munity Partner (MCP), he helps to test and develop new
b
the discussion and keep things fun. MINDSTorMS products. He earned a master’s degree in
o
as you make your way through the book, you’ll build and robotics and automation from the University of Siena in
program five wicked cool robots: Italy. He holds educational presentations and workshops r
on Information and Communications Technology around a
N ROV3R, a vehicle you can modify to do things like follow a the world and teaches robotics at the high school level. T
line, avoid obstacles, and even clean a room
o
N WATCHGOOZ3, a bipedal robot that can be programmed RequiRements: oNE LEGo MINDSTorMS EV3 SET
r
to patrol a room using only the brick Program app (no (LEGo SET #31313)
y
computer required!)
THE FINEST IN GEEK ENTERTAINMENT™
www.nostarch.com tHis BooK is not AUtHoriZed or endorsed BY tHe lego groUP.
For Ages 1o+
“I LIE FLAT.”
Price: $34.95 ($36.95 CDN) sHelVe in: RobotiCs/Hobbies
This book uses RepKover—a durable binding that won’t snap shut.
benedettelli

THe lego® mindsTorms® eV3 laboraTory

THe lego®
mindsTorms® eV3
laboraTory
build, program, and experiment with
five wicked cool robots!
daniele benedettelli
THe lego® mindsTorms® eV3 laboraTory. Copyright © 2014 by Daniele Benedettelli.
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
17 16 15 14 13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
ISBN-10: 1-59327-533-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-59327-533-4
Publisher: William Pollock
Production Editor: Riley Hoffman
Cover Design: Tina Salameh
Interior Design: Octopod Studios
Cover Photograph: Francesco Rossi
Comic Illustrations: Arte Invisibile
Developmental Editor: William Pollock
Technical Reviewer: Claude Baumann
Copyeditor: Paula Fleming
Compositors: Riley Hoffman and Alison Law
Proofreaders: Emelie Burnette and Nancy Sixsmith
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
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Benedettelli, Daniele, 1984-
The LEGO Mindstorms EV3 laboratory: build, program, and experiment with five wicked cool robots! / by Daniele
Benedettelli.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-59327-533-4 -- ISBN 1-59327-533-1
1. Robots--Design and construction--Amateurs’ manuals. 2. Robots--Programming--Amateurs’ manuals. 3. LEGO
Mindstorms toys. I. Title.
TJ211.B46325 2013
629.8’9--dc23
2013030612
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.
All characters in this publication are fictitious, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
To the memory of Nari

about the author
Daniele Benedettelli is an Italian robotics engineer known NXT2WIFI, a Wi-Fi adaptor for the NXT, which makes it pos-
worldwide for his LEGO MINDSTORMS creations, such as the sible to control robots with any browser-enabled device (such
LEGO Rubik Utopia (2007), Cyclops (2011), and LEGONARDO as computers, Android smartphones, iPhones, and iPads) and
(2013). He prefers to be called Danny, mainly to avoid being to build huge swarms of networked robots.
mistaken for a girl named Danielle. (He once received an He currently works as a high school electronics and
appreciation plaque in Bahrain “for sharing her expertise systems teacher and as a freelance LEGO designer for the
and knowledge in robotics.”) Bricks4Kidz franchise. He has participated in many LEGO
In 1992, his creation “Tom the cat” lost early in a LEGO events, and he has been invited to ICT Education conferences
competition held in a toy store in his hometown, but he didn’t around the world as a keynote speaker and workshop facilita-
give up. He kept playing well until he hit the “dark age of tor. His YouTube channel has millions of views, and his creations
LEGO”—a period in the life of an adult fan of LEGO (AFOL) have been featured in many TV shows worldwide. Benedettelli
when real-life interests (girls, in his case) replaced his passion sometimes plays piano and composes music (mainly soundtracks
for the plastic bricks. That is, until 2001—when he discovered for his videos). He likes origami and drawing comics, the latter
the LEGO MINDSTORMS RCX. a passion that proved useful when creating this book. He is the
Since 2006, Benedettelli has collaborated with The LEGO author of two previous books: Creating Cool LEGO MINDSTORMS
Group in testing and developing the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Robots (Apress, 2008) and LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Think-
products as a MINDSTORMS Community Partner (MCP). ing Robots (No Starch Press, 2009). You can learn more about
In 2012, he was hired as an external programmer for LEGO him at these links:
Education. He was selected as one of 12 experts to test the
LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3, and he created the EL3CTRIC http://robotics.benedettelli.com/
GUITAR, one of the bonus models for the Retail set 31313. http://music.benedettelli.com/
In 2012, with the help of the openPICUS team, http://www.facebook.com/robotics.benedettelli/
Benedettelli crowdfunded and brought to market the http://twitter.com/DBenedettelli
about the technical reviewer
Claude Baumann has taught advanced LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Module team. More recently, he has participated as a
robotics in after-school classes for 15 years. He participated MINDSTORMS Community Partner (MCP) during the develop-
in beta testing for the ROBOLAB software developed at the ment of the new EV3 Intelligent Brick. He has been the asses-
Center for Engineering and Outreach (CEEO) at Tufts University sor of various high school robotics projects and is the author of
(http://ceeo.tufts.edu/). He created ULTIMATE ROBOLAB, a Eureka! Problem Solving with LEGO Robotics (NTS Press, 2013),
cross-compiler environment that allowed graphical program- several articles, and conference presentations. His special
ming of LEGO RCX firmware, and with it conceived the world’s interest is robotic sound localization. He is the head of a net-
only self-replicating program for the LEGO RCX (some call it work of high-school boarding institutions in Luxembourg (EU),
a virus). Claude also served as a co-developer on the CEEO and he’s married with three children and three grandchildren.
about the comic designers
Arte Invisibile or Invisible Art (http://www.arteinvisibile.com/; goal of bringing young people into the field of art and related
http://www.facebook.com/AssociazioneArteInvisibile/) is a professions. Over the years, the association has produced vari-
nonprofit association formed in 2007 by young artists living ous publications and organized exhibits and workshops with
in Tuscany, Italy. It has over 100 members. world-famous artists. It also manages a well-supplied comic
Arte Invisibile coordinates courses for comic design, illus- library with many rare comic books.
tration, digital art, screenplay writing, and animation with the
acknowledgments
I didn’t remember how tough it was to write a LEGO A huge thanks to all the LDraw community members who
MINDSTORMS book, especially with a comic story inside! developed the bits and tools to create high-quality LEGO-like
There are many people I need to thank for making this possible. building instructions. Special thanks to master builder and book
First, thanks to my family for their support and patience during author Philippe Hurbain (Philo), a master in modeling 3D LEGO
this period: to my completely newbie parents, who tested the elements, and to Kevin Clague, developer of LPUB4.
robots’ building instructions and helped make them crystal Thanks to my dear photographer friend Francesco Rossi
clear; to my brother, who kept telling me to get a real job; to (http://www.fr-ph.com/) for the great photo on the book cover!
my grandparents, who were dismayed to see what toys have He’s helped me with the crazy and beautiful photos for my
become (especially my ninja-like grandma who stealthily top models, like Cyclops and LEGONARDO. Girls don’t believe
approached my LEGO work desk from behind and whispered it’s me portrayed in his photos and want to meet him at once!
“What’s up? Are you working?” turning my hair a few shades True story.
grayer). And let’s not forget the tiresomely affectionate family Thanks to Marco and Susanna for helping me transform
dog, who covered my floor with fur and drool and barked at my a first-draft script into a full-blown graphic narrative and to
LEGO robots as if they were alive. Nicola for his last-minute help.
Thanks to the No Starch Press team, especially to Bill for And finally, thanks to the unaware Eddie for inspiring the
believing in this project and for his reviews and suggestions, character of Dexter. Regarding the other comic characters, any
and to Riley for her tireless and kind support. resemblance to real persons is purely coincidental. No apprentices
A big thanks to Claude Baumann, renowned school were harmed in the making of this book.
manager, teacher, and author, who punctually and meticulously
reviewed the technical aspects of this book. Thanks to the
twelve monkeys group, of which I am proud member, for
their friendship and inspiration. Thanks to John Hansen, for
his early EV3 screen capture tool. And thanks to the LEGO
MINDSTORMS team, especially Lee (for hiring me as a pro-
grammer for LEGO Edu); Steven (for endorsing my projects);
and Camilla, Flemming B., Henrik, Jesper, Lars Joe, Linda,
Marie, Oliver, Pelle, and Peter.