 | Level: Introductory Gary Pollice, Professor of Practice, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
15 Mar 2008 
from The Rational Edge: Eleven dedicated Lego Mindstorms NXT experts have written an excellent book for the roboticist who wants to go beyond the basics of the NXT and its basic LabVIEW programming environment and language, which they refer to as NXT-G.
From The Rational Edge.
The Lego Mindstorms NXT Idea Book: Design, Invent, and Build
Martijn Boogaarts, et al.
No Starch Press, 2007
ISBN 1593271506
Eleven authors -- all dedicated Lego Mindstorms NXT experts and enthusiasts -- have produced an excellent book for the roboticist who wants to go beyond the basics of the NXT and its basic LabVIEW programming environment and language, which they refer to as NXT-G.
The book contains two parts. The first part describes advanced capabilities and techniques about working with the Lego Mindstorms NXT. The second part contains complete projects for eight robots you can build and program with a basic Lego Mindstorms NXT set. Part I (chapters 1-8) fills 85 pages while Part II (chapters 9-16) fills another 250 pages. There are two short appendices. The first appendix describes the differences between the educational Mindstorms set and the retail version, and I don't think this appendix is very useful. The second appendix provides a short introduction to using CAD software to record your models. It also offers pointers to free CAD software that can render Lego models. The authors use one of these systems for the diagrams in the book.
If you're new to the Lego Mindstorms NXT platform, you'll want to read the first two chapters that describe the components of the sets and the basic programming components of NXT-G. But if you've completed even the simplest project, you can skip ahead to Chapter 3. You may want to scan Chapter 2, however, if you've never used "wires" in your programs to communicate between blocks.
Chapter 3 gets into the details that every robotics programmer needs to know. How can I effectively use the memory available and how can I get more? The authors provide tips on how to get more memory by removing some of the things you don't need in the system and how to make use of "mini-blocks" that are freely available on-line. Following this chapter is a short one on debugging. There is no debugger for NXT-G, so you will want to know the techniques offered here to help you find the inevitable problems.
Three chapters in Part I address hardware and communication technologies. The first, chapter 5 describes each of the sensors that come with the basic Lego Mindstorms NXT sets. There are some built-in sensors that monitor the buttons and devices on the NXT brick. There are also four external sensors for light, sound, touch, and ultrasonics. This chapter describes how to program each of these, and it concludes with a table of the various data plugs (wires) that each sensor supports.
The final two chapters on the hardware and communication technology are Chapters 7 and 8. Chapter 7 discusses the Bluetooth capabilities and how to use them with your computer. Chapter 8 goes beyond this and shows you how to use Bluetooth to communicate from one NXT to another.
My favorite section in the first part of the book is Chapter 6 on design. The authors take you through the process of designing and implementing a robot with the Lego system, and they've done a marvelous job of breaking down the steps that will help an individual or a group turn their ideas into a working robot. They provide a simple task worksheet at the end of the chapter that make it simple to keep a project on course.
The second part of the book describes complete projects for eight robots that you can build with the Lego kits:
- RaSPy: a robot that plays rock, scissors, paper
- A rambling beach buggy chair
- 3DPhotoBot: a 3D photo assistant
- CraneBot: a grabber robot
- A one-armed robot that lets you play slots
- BenderBot: an anti-theory music robot
- ScanBot: an image-scanning robot
- marty: a performance art robot
These robots cover a wide spectrum of technologies, not just robotics. The robots in this section do not depend upon the others, so you can find one that appeals to you and jump right into building it. The directions are straightforward, with lots of diagrams and programming instructions. Many of the projects offer suggestions on how to go further with that particular design and add to the physical or program capabilities.
If you're going to jump into the Lego Mindstorms arena, this book is one that I highly recommend. It will increase your enjoyment of the system and introduce you to several techniques while you're having a lot of fun.
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About the author | 
| | Gary Pollice is a professor of practice at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, in Worcester, MA. He teaches software engineering, design, testing, and other computer science courses, and also directs student projects. Before entering the academic world, he spent more than thirty-five years developing various kinds of software, from business applications to compilers and tools. His last industry job was with IBM® Rational® Software, where he was known as "the RUP Curmudgeon" and was also a member of the original Rational Suite team. He is the primary author of Software Development for Small Teams: A RUP-Centric Approach, published by Addison-Wesley in 2004. He holds a B.A. in mathematics and an M.S. in computer science. |
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