Winning LEGO MINDSTORMS Programming: LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT-G Programming for Fun and Competition

by James Trobaugh, Mannie Lowe

Overview

Winning LEGO MINDSTORMS Programming is your ticket to successfully programming for fun and competition with LEGO MINDSTORMS and the NXT-G programming language commonly used in FIRST LEGO League events. The book is a companion title to author James Trobaugh’s acclaimed book on physical robot design, Winning Design!. This new book focuses squarely on the programming side of working with MINDSTORMS. Together the two books put you on a rock-solid foundation for creating with LEGO MINDSTORMS, whether for fun at home or in competition with a team.

Winning LEGO MINDSTORMS Programming sets the stage by emphasizing the importance of up front planning, and thinking about the challenge to be met. Learn to evaluate possible solutions by sanity-testing their logic before you put the effort into actually writing the code. Then choose your best option and write the code applying the techniques in this book. Take advantage of language features such as MyBlocks to enhance reliability and create easy-to-debug code. Manage your code as you change and improve it so that you can trace what you’ve done and fall back if needed. Avoid common programming pitfalls. Work powerfully with teammates to conquer competition challenges of all types.

• Provides solid techniques similar to those used by professional programmers, and optimized for the LEGO MINDSTORMS platform.
• Addresses key tasks important to competition such as line detection, line following, squaring of corners, motor stall detection, and more.
• Compliments Winning Design! by tackling the programming side of competition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781430245360
Publisher:	Apress
Publication date:	11/19/2012
Edition description:	1st ed.
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

James J. Trobaugh is an experienced coach and leader in the FIRST LEGO League. He is author of the acclaimed book Winning Design!, focusing on the physical aspects of LEGO MINDSTORMS robot design. He s been involved with FIRST LEGO League since 2004 as coach for Team Super Awesome, and as a technical judge at LEGO World Festival. He is also the FIRST LEGO League Director of the Forsyth Alliance in Forsyth County, Georgia. James started out as a LEGO hobbyist by founding the North Georgia LEGO Train Club in 1998, and has found in LEGO robotics a natural blending of his LEGO hobby and his day job as a software architect. An added bonus is the joy of sharing his love of technology not only with his own children, but with kids in general.

Table of Contents

1. Meeting the NXT-G Software

2. Software Design Process

3. Using and Creating MyBlocks

4. When Things Go Wrong

5. Moving Data

6. Making Smart Decisions

7. Motors and Motion

8. Light Detection

9. Touching and Bumping

10. Seeing with Ultrasonics

11. Programming Like A Pro

12 Code Management

13. Programming Pitfalls

14. NXT-G Tips & Tricks