Book Image

Smart Robotics with LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor

By : Aaron Maurer
Book Image

Smart Robotics with LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor

By: Aaron Maurer

Overview of this book

LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor is the latest addition to the LEGO MINDSTORMS theme. It features unique designs that you can use to build robots, and also enable you to perform activities using the robot inventor application. You'll begin by exploring the history of LEGO MINDSTORMS, and then delve into various elements of the Inventor kit. Moving on, you'll start working on different projects which will prepare you to build a variety of smart robots. The first robotic project involves designing a claw to grab objects, and helps you to explore how a smart robot is used in everyday life and in industry. The second project revolves around building a working guitar that can be played and modified to meet the needs of the user. As you advance, you'll explore the concept of biomimicry as you discover how to build a scorpion robot. In addition to this, you'll also work on a classic robotic challenge by building a sumobot. Throughout the book, you'll come across a variety of projects that will provide you with hands-on experience in building creative robots, such as building a Dragster, Egg Decorator, and Plankton from Spongebob Squarepants. By the end of this LEGO book, you'll have got to grips with the concepts behind building a robot, and also found creative ways to integrate them using the application based on your creative insights and ideas.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)

Writing the code

You will be writing two programs for this build. The first program will allow the robot to move autonomously without any help from its human companion. The second program will be a program that will allow you to control the robot using the remote-control feature of the app.

Connecting sensors and motors to the ports

Before we get into the programming, let's make sure all motors and sensors are properly plugged into the Intelligent Hub. The two motors for the tail should be plugged into ports A and E. The two-wheel motors will be plugged into ports B and F. The left wheel will be in port B and the right wheel will be plugged into port F.

For the sensors, you will plug the distance sensor into port C. Finally, the color sensor will plug into port D.

Check all connections using the Port View in the software.

This view is reproduced here:

Figure 5.74 – Port View in the MINDSTORMS software

Figure 5.74 – Port View in the MINDSTORMS software

Now that you have all your...