NXT Warehouse

Thursday, March 29th, 2007

Here’s some awesome NXT warehouse made by guys in Cubido Gmbh. These guys used microsoft BizTalk Server to manage SMS messages to the “warehouse”, SQL Server 2005 for data storage and web services. Microsoft Workflow Foundation to create the processes controlling the warehouse robot. and Microsoft .NET (C# and C++) to program the whole stuff. They also made their own electromagnet controlled via I²C bus.

Their webpages (mostly German) are linked here. A great trailer video (with Lego people animation..) for BigDays 2007 is here. Great work!

Posted in projects, news | 1 Comment »

NXT MazeRunner

Wednesday, March 21st, 2007

 

Motivated by Mario Ferrari’s MazeRunner, I’ve built an NXT version of MazeRunner.

Enjoy the movie! (13Mb)

Guy Ziv
NXTasy.org

Posted in personal, projects, news | 7 Comments »

URBI for Mindstorms NXT

Saturday, March 17th, 2007

A new programming language for NXT was released - URBI. You can find the download, documentation and toturials at http://www.gostai.com/lego.html.

Posted in development, news | No Comments »

Keep the volume down, or this robot will turn off the TV

Saturday, March 17th, 2007

This home-made i²c-controlled infrared remote control can turn off the TV (or give it other commands, like lowering the volume or change channels). It is used in this robot to turn the TV off if the sound is too loud.

The most interesting aspect of this project is the use of a microcontroller in the circuit. The microcontroller listens to i²c transmissions that the NXT sends via one of the sensor ports. The transmission from the NXT contains the infrared command to send. Once such a transmission is received, the microcontroller generates the appropriate infrared signal.

The full description of the project describes how to program a low-cost microcontroller ($20 will buy both the microcontroller and the device to program it) and how to interface it to the NXT. The full description also includes a short video showing the robot actually turning of a TV with this home-made remote.

Posted in hardware, hacking | 2 Comments »

Official NXTasy Challenge No. 2

Wednesday, March 14th, 2007

Well, most of you wanted another builiding contest in the poll I’ve posted (those who bothered voting at least..) so I’ve changed the plans and we’ll get going!

Challenge No. 2 - “Move the Ball!”

Preliminary instructions (more detailed rules will be posted soon):
1. Robot should be built from a SINGLE RETAIL NXT SET parts. If you’re unsure what this means look here: http://www.peeron.com/inv/sets/8527-1. You can, however, use the LEGO Lithium Ion battery to power your robot.

2. A plastic ball (red or blue) should be placed on a mount (a starting point can be the mount in the TriBot building instructions, but anything else is ok as long as its part are from the same NXT set as the robot itself) and located ANYWHERE inside the oval circle of the NXT Test Pad. The position must NOT be defined a priori to the program!

3. The robot should start anywhere OUTSIDE the oval circle (i.e. looking from the above no part of it should be in or above the line). The starting position CAN be defined a priori if you like.

4. About 10 seconds after the user starts the program, the robot should initiate a timer and begin it’s mission. When the mission is complete it should beep and display the timer value on the screen. A picture showing clearly this result should accompany the video record of the whole operation.

5. When the robot starts it should seek and find the ball, catch it (in whatever way you like!), move outside of the oval circle, make two full turns around the oval following the black line (using line-following, not dead-reckoning!), then put the ball back on it’s mount and get out of the oval circle. Simple, isn’t it?

6. Inside the oval you must not put or draw anything except for the ball and the mount. Furthermore, you should not direct the robot to the ball in any way - it must find it by its own sensors. Outside the oval you can put/built/draw anything you like, as long as it is not part of the robot. For these “supporting” structures you can use anything you like, including non-LEGO parts and active stuff (lamps, lasers or whatever your wild imagination takes you!)

7. A video and a picture of the timer result should be emailed to guy@nxtasy.org as well as any question/comment etc.

PRIZES will be announced in a later post

DEADLINE is May 1st 2007

A topic dedicated for discussion regarding this challenge is here.

Good Luck!

Posted in news | 16 Comments »

Sensor Building Kit for NXT with PCF8574 IC

Wednesday, March 14th, 2007

Here’s a new product from mindsensors.com. This kit is an ideal platform for you to design and build your own sensor. The kit comes with all the necessary parts to do Input/Outputs with NXT brick.

The kit contains:

• PCB
• PCF8574 IC
• appropriate capacitors
• appropriate resistors
• NXT type socket
• 10 pin header

Note: requires soldering.

Posted in hardware, news | 2 Comments »

atan2 function on NXT (version 1.1)

Monday, March 12th, 2007

 

In many mobile robot applications you need the atan2-function that is applied to robot coordinates x and y and that should return the correct angle in all 4 quadrants. This function has the same precision as the previous atan. The result is expressed in a strange unit: deci-degrees (because of integer variables) www.convict.lu/Jeunes/RoboticsIntro.htm

(bug fixed 13.03.07 -trouble with large ratios y/x; version 1.1)

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integer square-root and trig functions

Sunday, March 11th, 2007

You may download and try the integer square-root and trig function (sin,cos,atan) blocks at www.convict.lu/Jeunes/RoboticsIntro.htm

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