ev3-software-tutorial-dc terminologia en ibgles.ppt
1. Getting started with LEGO EV3
Mindstorms software
This is intended to be a short introduction to the LEGO
Mindstorms software and programming the LEGO EV3
robot. There’s more to the program than what can be found
here, but this should get you started. Hopefully it should
also alleviate some issues that can be common to new
users.
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Center for Computational Neurobiology,
University of Missouri
2. Putting Commands in a Program
The commands get executed in a row by how far away they
are from the beginning of the beam. So, command 1 in this
picture happens first, and command 3 happens last.
This is the program beam. This is where
you put commands for the robot.
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Center for Computational Neurobiology,
University of Missouri
3. Using Commands
You can pull
commands
down from the
“palette” on the
bottom of the
screen to the
program beam.
We’ll start with the MOVE command.
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Center for Computational Neurobiology,
University of Missouri
4. Move Settings
When you put a new command in the
program, parameters you can set pop up
on the block you just added.
These are the settings for the MOVE command.
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Center for Computational Neurobiology,
University of Missouri
5. Direction
1. Positive means forward, negative means
backward.
2. The cross sign means turn off the motor.
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Center for Computational Neurobiology,
University of Missouri
6. Steering
1. The STEERING setting can be used to tell the robot to
turn to the left or to the right.
2. The arrow in the middle will change to give you an
idea of how the robot will move.
3. If the slider is moved all the way to the left or right,
the robot will spin in place.
4. However, if the slider is moved to just before the
extreme left or right, the left or right wheel
(respectively), will not rotate during movement. (In
other words, the robot will pivot.
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Center for Computational Neurobiology,
University of Missouri
7. Power
1. The POWER setting tells the robot how fast to move.
2. Think of it as a percentage, with 0 being no power and
100 being full power.
3. Also keep in mind that this is not necessarily a
measure of speed. A heavy robot moving at 100
power can still go slower than a very light robot
moving at 50 power.
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Center for Computational Neurobiology,
University of Missouri
8. Duration
1. With the DURATION setting, you can tell the robot how long
or how far to move.
2. There are four options for the duration:
• Unlimited: The robot will continue to move with these
settings until it is given a new movement command.
• Rotations: For each rotation, the wheels turn through
360 degrees. So, going forward 2.5 rotations would make
the wheels rotate 2.5 x 360 = 900 degrees.
• Degrees: Same as rotations, but specified in degrees of
rotation.
• Seconds: Amount of time for wheels to rotate at the
given speed.
8
Center for Computational Neurobiology,
University of Missouri
9. Putting the Settings Together
• The actual movement of the robot is a combination of all of the
settings. Some examples:
– You tell the robot to turn to the left using STEERING and set the
DURATION to three rotations. Both wheels can’t do three rotations,
because if they did, the robot would move straight. So, the robot’s
computer figures out how far to turn each wheel to make the robot drive
to the left on a path that is equivalent to three rotations of the wheels.
– If you set the POWER to 75, then setting different DURATIONS in seconds
will make the robot move different distances.
– When making the robot turn, it usually makes the most sense to pull the
STEERING slider all the way to the left or right. When you do this, each
wheel will rotate the same amount (which can be set with DURATION in
rotations mode), but in opposite directions.
9
Center for Computational Neurobiology,
University of Missouri
10. Issues for First-Timers
• There are a lot of small issues that can put off new users to
the EV3 robots and software. Hopefully these pointers can
help you get started!
• When the EV3 software is first loaded on the computer, in
order to create a program, you need to just click the add
button.
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Center for Computational Neurobiology,
University of Missouri
11. Issues for First-Timers
• As shown in the picture on the bottom, there are
tabs at the bottom that bring you to different
palettes of programming tools. The green palette
is for action, the yellow is for flow control, the
red is for sensors. Those are the common ones
student will use.
• Also, If you have a lot of commands on the screen
at once, you can move it around by highlighting
them all and dragging them.
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Center for Computational Neurobiology,
University of Missouri
12. Issues for First-Timers
• When you have finished building the program for the
robot, it’s time to download it to the robot’s EV3
brain.
• First, make sure that the USB cable that came with
the EV3 kit is plugged into the back of the computer
and into the top of the EV3 robot.
• Then, turn on the robot with the middle button on
the EV3 brain. (It doesn’t really matter whether you
plug the robot in or turn it on first.)
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Center for Computational Neurobiology,
University of Missouri
13. Issues for First-Timers
• Once the program is downloaded on the EV3 brain it automatically goes
into the program.
• To navigate the EV3 brain you use the keypads on the brain.
13
Center for Computational Neurobiology,
University of Missouri
14. Issues for First-Timers
• If you are finished with the robot, you can turn it off by hitting the dark gray
button on the top left, under the screen, of the EV3 brain. You will be asked if you
want to turn the robot off. Select the checkmark to say OK.
• The EV3 brain only has a limited amount of space to store programs. It’s not a bad
idea to go into the second tab on top of the screen and delete old programs from
time to time so that you won’t run out of space.
• If you are running the Mindstorms software at a school, you probably have a tech
specialist that installs software for you. You will probably need to ask the tech
specialist to install the software for the first time. Make sure he or she knows that
the students in your class are going to need to be able to run the program.
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Center for Computational Neurobiology,
University of Missouri