1. How to control LEGO® Mindstorms devices Thomas Mueller thomas _ @ _ tmspecial.com

2. Outline  timeline  hardware  software  programming  advantages/disadvantages  resources  questions

3. Timeline 2006 NXT Code Pilot RCX Scout 1995 Dacta 1998/991990 Control Center

4. Hardware  RCX  3 inputs/3 outputs  8-bit Renesas H8/300 microcontroller  32K RAM  IR communication

5. Hardware  NXT  4 inputs/3 outputs  32-bit AT91SAM7S256 processor  8-bit ATmega48 microcontroller  256 KB flash memory, 64 KB RAM  4 KB flash memory, 512 Bytes RAM  USB communication

6. Inputs (sensors)  touch  light  sound  ultrasonic  infrared  color  compass  acceleration  gyroscopic

7. Inputs  buttons  Bluetooth  3 rd party devices  game controller

8. Outputs  electric motors  sound  display  Bluetooth

9. Software  Graphical  NXT-G  RoboLab  Microsoft Robotics Studio  Assembly  Next Byte Codes (NBC)  C  Not Quite C (NQC)  Not eXactly C (NXC)  RobotC

10. Software  Java  leJOS .NET  NXT#  IDE  Bricx Command Center  Microsoft Visual Studio  Eclipse

11. NXT-G demo

12. Bricx/NXC demo

13. Fat Boy

14. Pinball machine

15. Slot machine

16. Advantages  very affordable for a robotics set  can be combined with 99% of all other Lego parts  huge community  FIRST LEGO League had over 10,000 teams with over 100,000 participants in 2007

17. Disadvantages  price ($250 MSRP)  not backwards compatible  different sensors/motors

18. Resources  General  LEGO  http://mindstorms.lego.com/eng/Black_Destination/Default.aspx http://mindstorms.lego.com/eng/Black_Destination/Default.aspx  Wikipedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Mindstorms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Mindstorms  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_NXT http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_NXT  Software  Bricx  http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/nbc/ http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/nbc/  http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/ http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/  Microsoft Robotics Studio  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/robotics/default.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/robotics/default.aspx  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Robotics_Studio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Robotics_Studio

19. Resources  3 rd party hardware  http://www.hitechnic.com/ http://www.hitechnic.com/  http://www.mindsensors.com/ http://www.mindsensors.com/  Community  FIRST LEGO League  http://www.usfirst.org/community/fll/default.aspx?id=970 http://www.usfirst.org/community/fll/default.aspx?id=970  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIRST_Lego_League http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIRST_Lego_League  LEGO user group of Los Angeles  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LUGOLA/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LUGOLA/  BrickShelf  http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=nxt&stype=dfic http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=nxt&stype=dfic  http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=mindstorms&stype=fi http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=mindstorms&stype=fi

20. Questions

21. Contact  Thomas Mueller  thomas _ @ _ tmspecial.com  http://www.tmspecial.com/downloads/Lego Mindstorms NXT.pptx http://www.tmspecial.com/downloads/Lego Mindstorms NXT.pptx