LEGO Mindstorms NXT

I plan to buy the LEGO® MINDSTORMS®robot for this summer. So I try to collect all information I may find in order to centralize them in my pages about LEGO® and LEGO®Mindstorms® NXT.

LEGO ® MINDSTORMS®

 As defined in the wikipedia definition, « LEGO®MINDSTORMS® is a line of Lego sets combining programmable bricks with electric motors, sensors, Lego bricks, and Lego Technic pieces (such as gears, axles, and beams) ». In a simply word, MINDSTORMS® is the robot brand name.

NXT

As defined by the LEGO company, « the NXT is the brain of a MINDSTORMS® robot. It’s an intelligent, computer-controlled LEGO® brick that lets a MINDSTORMS® robot come alive and perform different operations ». The NXT is one of the component of the robot, one which interacts with and controls others components, called sensors. HiTechnic produces a set of sensors dedicated to the LEGO®MINDSTORMS®, CODATEX does it too!

	Touch Sensor The sense of touch is given to the robot thanks to this sensor. It detects when it is being pressed by something and when it is released again.
	Sound Sensor The Sound Sensor can detect both decibels [dB]  (sound that are too high or too low for the human ear to hearn) and adjusted decibel [dBA] (sound pressure adapted to human ear sensitivity).
	Light Sensor Robot vision capacities are given by the Light Sensor (with the Ultrasonic Sensor). The Light Sensor enables the robot to measure light intensity (light/dark).
	Ultrasonic Sensor Thanks to the Ultrasonic Sensor, the robot can see and detect objects. This sensor may be used to avoid obstacles, sense and measure distance, and detect movement.« The Ultrasonic Sensor measures distance in centimeters and in inches. It is able to measure distances from 0 to 255 centimeters with a precision of +/- 3 cm.The Ultrasonic Sensor uses the same scientific principle as bats: it measures distance by calculating the time it takes for a sound wave to hit an object and return – just like an echo. »
	Servo Motors & Rotation Sensor The robot has the ability to move thanks to the 3 Servo Motors. Each motor has a built-in Rotation Sensor, which measures motor rotations in degrees or full rotations.

 Photographies source: LOGO® MINDSTORMS®web site.

LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT software & NXT-G

To program the robot, the LEGO®MINDSTORMS® NXT software enables any programer to upload programs to the NXT via USB or Bluetooth connectivity. NXT-G is the graphical language of the LEGO® Mindstorms® NXT system. As the Microsoft Visual Programming Language (VPL), NXT-G is based on a graphical set of commands linked together in order to asssit code writing. I begin reading the LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT-G Programming Guide to understand more the NXT-G features.

NXT’REME

Moreover, the LEGO®MINDSTORMS® NXT software is not the only one programming environment. You may use also the National Instrument LabView Toolkit, the Microsoft Robotics Studio, the Gostai URBI for LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT or the NBC (Next Byte Codes).

Yesterday I finished reading the NXC Programmer’s Guide. Not eXactly C (NXC) is a high level language, similar to C, built on top of the NBC compiler. NXC is basically NQC for the NXT. To compile NXC programs you ahev to use the NBC compiler with source code files that have a .nxc file extension. The Next Byte Codes (NBC) is a simple language with an assembly language syntax that can be used to program LEGO’s NXT programmable brick. Well, it’s a good way for me to enter in the C world!

I highly recommend NXT!