The Art of LEGO® Mindstorms® EV3 Programming, Terry Griffin

578 Pages·2016·15.78 MB·English

The Art of LEGO Mindstorms EV3
® ®
Programming
Terry Griffin
Published by No Starch Press
To my family, who make all the work worthwhile.
And to Bella, who gives me a reason to get up in the morning.
about the author
Terry Griffin has been a software engineer for more than 20 years and has spent
most of that time creating software to control various types of machines. He
earned a master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of
Massachusetts and has taught programming at the college and adult education
levels. A lifelong LEGO enthusiast, he wrote The Art of LEGO MINDSTORMS
NXT Programming (No Starch Press) to help his wife, a dynamic middle school
science and math teacher, learn how to use these incredible robots in her
classroom. He works for the Ion Microscopy Innovation Center division of Carl
Zeiss, writing software to control charge particle microscopes.
about the technical reviewers
Daniele Benedettelli is known worldwide for his original LEGO robots,
including his Rubik’s Cube solvers and his humanoid robots. As a LEGO
MINDSTORMS Community Partner (MCP), he helped to test and develop new
MINDSTORMS products. He earned a master’s degree in Robotics and
Automation from the University of Siena in Italy. He holds educational
presentations and workshops on Robotics and Information and Communications
Technology around the world, teaches robotics at the high school level, and
designs LEGO models as a freelancer for LEGO educational programs. He’s the
author of The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Laboratory (No Starch Press).
Rob Torok is a teacher in Tasmania, Australia, and has been using LEGO
robotics with his students since 2001. He has mentored teams in RoboCup Junior
and the FIRST Robotics Competition, and teaches an online robotics class called
SmartBots. In 2010, Rob spent six months based at the Tufts Center for
Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) in Boston and continues to work
closely with the center. He is currently the content editor for both
http://LEGOengineering.com/ and http://LEGOeducation.com.au/.
acknowledgments
I’d like to thank my family for all their patience while I wrote this book. Special
thanks to my wife, Liz, who spent countless hours reviewing the text and
tolerated the robots inhabiting the dining room table.
This work would not have been possible without the help and support of Bill
Pollock and the staff at No Starch Press. It was a pleasure to work with Seph
Kramer, Laurel Chun, and Jennifer Griffith-Delgado. Their knowledge and
expertise were instrumental in the completion of this project.
I’d also like to thank my tech reviewers, Daniele Benedettelli and Rob Torok.
Their knowledge of the EV3, and robotics in general, was a big help in keeping
the material relevant and technically correct.
introduction
This book is about learning how to write programs for LEGO MINDSTORMS
EV3 robots. The EV3 software is a powerful tool, and this book will teach you
how to get the most out of it as you acquire the programming skills necessary to
create your own programs.
who this book is for
This book is for anyone who wants to learn how to create programs to control
their EV3 robot, whether you’re a young robotics enthusiast; an adult teaching
children about robotics; a parent; a FIRST LEGO League coach; or a teacher
using the EV3 in a classroom. One of my goals in writing this book was to make
the material accessible to young learners while going into enough depth to help
students and teachers understand the hows and whys of EV3 programming.
prerequisites
This book can be used with either the Home or Education Edition, and you’ll use
a single general purpose robot for testing your programs. There are only a few
relevant differences between the programs for each edition, and I point them out
as appropriate. Almost all the material presented here applies to either edition.
No previous programming experience is required. The EV3 software is powerful
but easy to use, and makes a great introductory tool for first-time programmers.
what to expect from this book
This book focuses on programming EV3 robots rather than on the mechanical
aspects of building them. All of the programs in this book are designed to work
with one general-purpose robot or with just the EV3 Intelligent Brick. You’ll
learn how to work with the core parts of the EV3 software, such as blocks, data
wires, files, and variables, and how these pieces work together. You’ll also learn
some good programming practices, bad habits to avoid, and debugging strategies
that will help you have fun while programming and keep your frustration level
low.
In this book you’ll find step-by-step instructions and explanations for many EV3
programs, including small examples designed to help you understand exactly
how EV3 programs work, as well as complete, sophisticated programs designed
to perform complex behavior. Along the way, you’ll also see programming
challenges, which will prompt you to explore EV3 programming on your own to
practice the concepts you’ve learned.
The book begins with an introduction to the EV3 set and the software you’ll be
using to create your programs. This is followed by the building instructions for
the test robot. The next few chapters cover the basics of the EV3 software,
culminating in a maze-solving program in Chapter 7. That’s followed by several
chapters covering the more advanced language features, and the book finishes up
with a sophisticated linefollowing program using a PID controller. Here’s an
overview of what you’ll learn in each chapter.
Chapter 1: LEGO and robots: a great combination
The first chapter provides a brief introduction to the LEGO
MINDSTORMS EV3 software. It also presents some important differences
between the Home and Education Editions, and how they impact this book.
Chapter 2
This chapter gives a tour through the features of the EV3 software. Two
simple programs demonstrate how to create programs and run them on the
EV3. This chapter also covers the basics on changing block parameters,
adding comments, and using Port View.
Chapter 3: TriBot: the test robot
In this chapter you’ll build TriBot, the test robot. You’ll use this general-
purpose robot to test the programs throughout the rest of the book.