Book Image

Building Smart LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Robots

By : Kyle Markland
Book Image

Building Smart LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Robots

By: Kyle Markland

Overview of this book

Smart robots are an ever-increasing part of our daily lives. With LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3, you can now prototype your very own small-scale smart robot that uses specialized programming and hardware to complete a mission. EV3 is a robotics platform for enthusiasts of all ages and experience levels that makes prototyping robots accessible to all. This book will walk you through six different projects that range from intermediate to advanced level. The projects will show you building and programming techniques that are used by engineers in the real world, which will help you build your own smart robot. You'll see how to make the most of the EV3 robotics platform and build some awesome smart robots. The book starts by introducing some real-world examples of smart robots. Then, we'll walk you through six different projects and explain the features that allow these robots to make intelligent decisions. The book will guide you as you build your own object-tracking tank, a box-climbing robot, an interactive robotic shark, a quirky bipedal robot, a speedy remote control race car, and a GPS-navigating robot. By the end of this book, you'll have the skills necessary to build and program your own smart robots with EV3.
Table of Contents (9 chapters)

Hardware

We will use the Falcon as the base robot and do some modifications that will enable it to navigate autonomously. Make sure that you have read the previous chapter and that you are familiar with how the Falcon's hardware works before you proceed.

We will be adding two navigation sensors to the Falcon: a Dexter Industries dGPS and a HiTechnic compass sensor. We will take a look at how each of these sensors works and how they will enable the Falcon to navigate autonomously:

Dexter Industries dGPS

This is a simple GPS chip that connects to the satellites that orbit the Earth to give us an estimate of where the EV3 is in the world. The dGPS provides information such as UTC (time), latitude, longitude, heading, velocity...