1. Introduction to LEGO Mindstorms EV3 What is in the box?
Lecture 1
Introduction to LEGO Mindstorms EV3
What is in the box?

2. Objectives Define the term robot. Learn about the LEGO Mindstorms kit.
Specs. on the intelligent brick
Sensors
Motors
Software
Build a robot.
Program the robot to accomplish various tasks using EV3 Software.

3. Robots
For the purposes of this class, as robot is a manmade device with the following three characteristics:
It has motors that can be used to make actions.
It has sensors that can detect information about its environment.
It uses a computer to determine what actions are appropriate in each environment.

4. Robots Historically robots have be expensive, purpose built devices.
Recently consumer kits have become available that greatly reduce this cost.
LEGO Mindstorms
Vex

5. History of Mindstorms
In 1987 the MIT Media Lab began developing the Programmable Brick.
Sponsored by the LEGO group
Result was LEGO’s Robotics Invention System (RIS).
LEGO Mindstorms NXT kits 1.0 (2006) and 2.0 (2009) followed.
LEGO Mindstorms EV3 was introduced in 2013.

6. EV3 Intelligent Brick
The heart of the Mindstorms set is the intelligent brick.
This is a small computer with 64 MB of RAM and 16 MB of flash memory (expandable by SD card).

7. EV3 Intelligent Brick
The brick has an ARM9 processor (32-bit RISC processor, 300 MHz) running Linux.
It has a 178 x 128 pixel monochrome LCD display and a 6 button input.
It can be powered by 6 AA batteries or a rechargeable battery (included).

8. EV3 Buttons There are 6 buttons on the face of the brick.
Back button – undo, power off Up
Left
Enter – make selections, power on
Right
Down

9. EV3 Brick Features The brick has the following features.
Bluetooth for communications
A speaker and the ability to play sampled sound.
A large USB port for the addition of a WiFi adapter.
A micro SD card slot for expanded memory.

10. EV3 Brick Features Input ports (4) for attaching sensors.
These ports are labeled 1, 2, 3, 4.
Output ports (4) for attaching motors.
These ports are labeled A, B, C, D.
A small USB port used to connect the brick to a computer using an included USB cable.

11. EV3 Editions There are two different EV3 editions.
Home edition
Education edition
The big difference between these is the selection of sensors that are included.
The education edition also comes with a rechargeable battery.
The accompanying LEGO bricks are somewhat different as well.
The downloadable LEGO Mindstorms software also comes in two corresponding editions.

12. Sensors (Education Edition)
There are several sensors that are available.
Optical Sensor to detect color and light.
Ultrasonic Sensor to sense the distance to objects using echolocation.
Gyro Sensor senses rotation using accelerometers.
Touch Sensor basically a button.

13. Sensors (Home Edition)
The Home edition has some of the same sensors (omitting the Ultrasonic sensor and the Gyro sensor) but includes the following:
Infrared Sensor to detect infrared light.
Infrared Beacon to emit infrared light and act as a remote control.

14. Motors The EV3 set comes with two kinds of motors.
These are not only motors but contain rotation sensors.
It is possible to specify the angle for the motor to rotate.
Medium Motor Low speed/High torque/Low power motor that gives highly precise angle control.
Large Motor High speed/Lower torque/High power motor

15. LEGOs
The EV3 set also comes with a variety of LEGO parts with which to create your robots.

16. Storage Tubs
The EV3 sets come in storage tubs with dividers to help you sort the LEGO parts.
There are two inserts to help you identify, sort, and locate the various parts.
A census will be taken of all the parts at the end of the semester.

17. LEGO Software
The LEGO software comes in two flavors to download and can be installed on Windows or Macintosh systems.
Home edition
Education edition

18. Creating a Project
Starting the EV3 education version will open the following window.
Select the File menu from the options on the right.

19. Creating a Project Next select New Project and Program.
Click the Open button that appears.

20. Creating a Project The following programming screen should appear.
The box to the right is where instructions, illustrations, etc. can be displayed. Clicking on the EV3 icon in the upper right will hide this box.

21. Creating a Project
You can change the name of the program by clicking on the Program tab on the upper left.
You save the program by clicking on the disk icon at the top to the right.

22. EV3 Programming
Programming the EV3 is done visually using drag-and-drop programming elements represented by blocks.
This is similar to the programming language Scratch, also developed at the MIT Media Lab.
Program blocks are dragged out of menus at the bottom of the screen and attached to each other to form a program.
The green arrow shows where your program will start.

23. EV3 Programming
When an block is selected, it will have various pull down menus that allow you to select how it will operate.
As an example the sound block has the following menus.

24. Downloading Program to Brick
The box to the lower right of the programming window shows the status of the connected brick (if any).
If you turn on a brick (press the enter button) and connect it to a computer using the USB cable you will see something like the following.

25. Downloading Program to Brick
To download your program to the brick press the down arrow button.
To download and run the program press the right arrow button.
Once it is downloaded, you can run the program without a computer connection.
When the program is running, the run button turns into a stop button.

26. Program Blocks: Actions
There are different categories of program block coded by color.
Green blocks are actions.
Motion (motors)
Graphics on LCD
Sound
Lights around buttons

27. Program Blocks: Flow Control
Orange blocks allow us to control the flow of a program
Start the program
Wait for some event or time
Loop
Conditional Branch
Break a Loop

28. Program Blocks: Sensors
Yellow block allow us to control and read sensors.
The value that results when the sensor is read can be used as an input for some other programming block by extending a “wire.”

29. Program Blocks: Combining
The following is an infinite loop that repeatedly sounds a tone of 440 Hz for one second.
It uses the output from the Gyro sensor to determine the volume.
The Gyro sensor acts like a volume knob.
Note the Gyro sensor must be plugged into input port 1.

30. Program Blocks: Math
The EV3 software makes it possible, but difficult to mathematical operations.
Red programming blocks are used for these operations.

31. Program Blocks: Misc
The remaining program blocks control things like file management, Bluetooth, etc.
It is also possible to create your own blocks basically as subroutines.
These programming blocks are colored aqua.

32. Brick Menus The brick has 4 menus.
Run the current program.
File Navigation to saved programs
Brick Apps
Settings
Navigation is done using the buttons on the brick.

33. Running a Program To run a downloaded program:
Use the File Navigation tab.
Navigate to the project name.
Navigate to the program name and select it.

34. First Build Our first program is the Driving Base.
There is a book in the EV3 set with instructions.
Instructions are also available in the EV3 education software.
From the Robot Educator menu select Building Instructions.
Next select Driving Base and click on the open button that appears

35. Driving Base

36. Driving Base
The instructions will step you through building the robot.

37. Homework
Determine if each of the following devices is a robot as defined in the lecture. Explain your reasoning.
A Toyota Prius.
A Model T Ford.
An oven.
A can opener.
A device built using the LEGO Mindstorms kit.
Compare and contrast the LEGO EV3 software with the programming environments provided by C, Python and Java.

38. Workshop
On the website
Work through Movement 1-2.
Work through Sensors 3-6.
Work through Decisions 7-10.
We will do a selection of the challenges in class.