Lego Mindstorms NXT
The NXT is a control computer from the Lego Mindstorms product series . It has connections for several sensors and actuators , as well as USB and Bluetooth interfaces. The computer can be programmed on the PC using special programming languages . The NXT was presented at the Consumer Electronics Show in early 2006 and has been available in Germany since October 2006.
The NXT has an ARM processor . The noise and ultrasonic sensors were new . In addition, a robot equipped with it can also be used with a mobile phone e.g. B. remotely control the K610i or a computer via Bluetooth . It is also possible to use a mobile phone equipped with a camera as a camera sensor.
The software required for this can be downloaded from the LEGO Mindstorms website. Documentation, software updates, software developer kits (SDK) and the source code of the firmware (from December 2006) can also be found there.
Versions
The Mindstorms NXT set (8527, standard version) has been available in Germany since October 2006. Version 2.0 of the NXT system is now available with the 8547 set. With these versions the software is included in the set. There is also the Education Basic Set (9797), which is a particularly optimized version for everyday school life in a robust plastic box. In contrast to the other versions, the software must be purchased separately here.
On January 7, 2013, LEGO presented the successor system Mindstorms EV3 at the CES , which has motor and sensor compatibility with the NXT. In addition, compared to the NXT, the ultrasound has been replaced by an infrared distance sensor and a gyro sensor has been added. The new model came on the market in September 2013.
Basic equipment
The Lego Mindstorms NXT set contains:
- a programmable NXT brick with 32-bit microprocessor, real sound speaker, Bluetooth and USB connection, four sensor and three motor connections,
- three servomotors with built-in rotation sensors , accuracy 1 °
- one (NXT 1.0) or two (NXT 2.0) push button sensors ( picture )
- Ultrasonic sensor ( picture ) It can measure the distance between itself and an object. The measuring range is between 6 cm and 255 cm.
- Light sensor ( image ) (NXT 1.0) or color sensor (NXT 2.0)
- Sound sensor ( picture ) (only NXT 1.0)
- seven 6-wire connection cables (including 1 × 20 cm, 4 × 35 cm and 2 × 50 cm)
- 619 Lego technology elements
- Building instructions
- Test / calibration pad
- NXT-G, a graphical integrated development environment for the Windows and macOS operating systems
- USB cable
Hardware specifications of the NXT brick
- Atmel - ARM processor, AT91SAM7S256; 256 kB flash memory , 64 kBRAM, 48 MHz
- Coprocessor : Atmel 8-Bit AVR , ATmega48; 4 kB flash memory, 512 byte RAM, 8 MHz
- Bluetooth : CSR BlueCore 4 v2.0 + EDR; supports the Serial Port Profile (SPP), 26 MHz
- USB 2.0 connection, 12 Mbit / s
- three motor outputs with return channel
- four sensor inputs, analog and digital ( I²C ) combined
- the fourth input can be used as a high-speed port according to IEC 61158 Type 4 / EN 50170
- Dot matrix LC display ; 100 × 64 pixels, dimensions: 26 mm × 40.6 mm
- Sound output with 8-bit resolution and a sampling rate of 2 to 16 kHz
- Open source firmware .
connection cable
The NXT basic package (set 8547) contains seven NXT connection cables.
It is a six-pole cable with a kind of RJ12 plug. The only difference to an RJ12 connector is that the connection nose is on the side and not in the middle.
There are also adapter cables (set 8528) for the old connection cables of the RCX. This means that all analog sensors of the RCX (predecessor of the NXT) can be used, but a (free) update is required for the standard programming environment "NXT-G" so that the sensors can be addressed.
Assignment of the socket
| Pin | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| function | Analogue IN or +9 V |
GND | GND | +4.3V |
I²C -SCL or RS485 -A |
I²C -SDA or RS485 -B |
equipment
All sensors and the NXT brick itself are also available individually.
- Set 9798 battery (9 V); 1400 mAh to match 9833 transformer
- Set 9693 battery (10 V); 2100 mAh to match the 8887 transformer
- Set 8529 contains seven NXT connection cables; once 20 cm, four times 35 cm, twice 50 cm
- Set 8528 contains three adapter cables for RCX motors and sensors
- Set 9797 The school version (431 parts) of the Mindstorms NXT set has been containing a 2100 mAh Li-Ion battery and three adapter cables for connecting lamps and older motors and sensors, LEGO technology elements since July 2010 . The software has to be purchased separately, but is also an extended school version: LEGO 2000080. It contains a robot educator (learning programs with 3D animations) and DATA Logging (measurement data acquisition).
In addition, there are now various sensors from other companies that are not directly supported by the NXT-G . LEGO now offers an update for NXT-G, with which you can integrate blocks of these sensors.
HiTechnic, which has been officially working with LEGO since September 17, 2007, has a special position here. HiTechnic has been given permission to use the official LEGO sensor housing. In addition, LEGO now sells these sensors itself. The following HiTechnic sensors have been added to the LEGO range:
- Infrared viewfinder
- Gyro sensor
- Color sensor
- Accelerometer
- Compass sensor
- Temperature sensor
- EOPD sensor
LEGO also sells the Codatex RFID sensor
programming
The graphics-based programming environment NXT-G provided by LEGO was developed by Lego in cooperation with National Instruments and is based on the graphic programming interface LabView . This program comes with step-by-step programming instructions for all basic functions. In addition, there is also a large number of alternative programming options.
Alternative programming languages
Alternative programming languages make it possible to write and compile your own programs which, like NXT-G programs, run directly on the NXT. Sometimes a separate firmware is used for this, and sometimes the original firmware can still be used.
- NBC (Next Byte Code) is a language with assembler-like syntax
- NXC (Not eXactly C), a language with C-like syntax
- leJOS , a Java - Operating System for NXT and RCX
- nxtOSEK , a real-time operating system that is the only one that allows native execution of C and C ++ code
- pbLua , a Lua implementation
- LabVIEW , LabVIEW Toolkit for LEGO MINDSTORM NXT (Robolab)
- RobotC, language distributed by Robotics Academy with a syntax based on C
- Enchanting , a Scratch / BYOB based toolkit using LeJos as firmware, for NXT
- nxt, a library developed for Microsoft Touch Develop , to program the NXT directly on a Windows Phone
Remote programming
For remote-controlled programming, libraries for programming languages are offered that can control the NXT remotely via a Bluetooth or USB connection. The program itself runs on the remote-controlled computer. These include:
- MindSqualls, a program library for .NET to develop programs that remotely control the NXT via Bluetooth
- AForge.NET , contains a program library similar to MindSqualls
- MonoBrick, a Lego Mindstorms communication library in C that allows you to develop programs that remotely control the NXT via a Bluetooth or USB connection
- RWTH - Mindstorms NXT Toolbox, library (as well as documentation and examples) to control the NXT from Matlab via Bluetooth or USB
- MIT App Inventor (formerly "Google App Inventor") allows the development of programs for the Android operating system and also provides components with which the NXT can be remotely controlled via Bluetooth
Development environments
- BricxCC (Bricx Command Center), development environment for NXC and NBC
- Microsoft Robotics Studio 1.5, visual development environment and 3D test environment for various hardware platforms (including LEGO Mindstoms NXT)
- ROBOLAB from version 2.9
- Tuxminds, visual development environment for various hardware platforms (LEGO, Asuro, ...)
- Open Roberta , visual development environment for various hardware platforms (LEGO Mindstorms EV3 with Java - operating system leJOS or ev3dev, LEGO Mindstorms NXT, ... )
Simulation environments
- SimLejos, Three-dimensional simulation environment for the Java - OS leJOS
- Virtual Worlds, simulation environment for the RobotC programming language for NXT
Successor system Mindstorms EV3
On January 7, 2013, LEGO presented a new Mindstorms system called EV3 at the Consumer Electronics Show , the first official announcement was made on January 4, 2013. EV3 is a further development (evolution) of the LEGO Mindstorms NXT system
- Embedded Linux based on RedHat runs on the EV3. Alternative operating systems such as ev3dev, a Linux system based on Debian, can also be started from a microSD card slot.
Competitions
Various competitions such as the World Robot Olympiad are contested with the LEGO Mindstorms system . A regular competition for schoolchildren that takes place in different parts of the world is the First Lego League . Other competitions are e.g. B. the RoboCup or RoboRace of the University of Stuttgart.
literature
- Fraunhofer IAIS: Roberta - Basics and experiments for LEGO Mindstorms NXT . Fraunhofer Verlag IRB, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8167-7807-3
- Mario Ferrari et al .: Building Robots with LEGO Mindstorms Nxt . Syngress Media, 2007, ISBN 978-1-59749-152-5 (English)
- Daniel Braun: Programming robots with NXC for LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT . Mitp-Verlag, 2009, ISBN 3-8266-5070-0
- Matthias Paul Scholz: Building and programming robots: an introduction to LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT . 2nd revised edition. mitp, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8266-9446-2
- Trella Sebastian, Thorsten Leimbach: Roberta Programming with LabVIEW . 1st edition. 2014, ISBN 978-3-8396-0692-6
Web links
- LEGO Mindstorms NXT - programming languages at a glance. (PDF) Fraunhofer IAIS, accessed on September 21, 2010 .
- RoboRace
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hardware specification of the LEGO NXT system ( Memento from June 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ LEGO NXT website
- ↑ Mindstorms EV3: Lego announces new robotics kit. heise online , January 7, 2013, accessed on September 18, 2013 .
- ↑ Lego Mindstorms are not a children's toy. LEGO EV3. Zeit Online , September 15, 2013, accessed September 18, 2013 .
- ↑ kinder-technik.de
- ↑ RWTH - Mindstorms NXT Toolbox
- ↑ LEGO MINDSTORMS - App Inventor for Android ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Open Roberta Lab. Retrieved August 18, 2017 .
- ↑ mindstorms.lego.com
- ↑ EV3 overview
- ↑ Website for the World Robot Olympiad by “TECHNIK BEGEISTERT e. V. “: World Robot Olympiad
- ↑ Website for Central Europe from “Hands On Technology”: first lego league
