Advanced NXT (eBook)

The Da Vinci Inventions Book

Matthias Paul Scholz (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2008 | 1st ed.
369 Seiten
Apress (Verlag)
978-1-4302-0258-5 (ISBN)

Infos

The popularity of NXT and the success of The Da Vinci Code are combined in this fascinating book. Projects for building and programming five of Leonardo's most famous inventions are covered in detail: the tank, the helicopter, the catapult, the flying machine, and the revolving bridge.

This book is written for serious NXT programmers and covers the most popular programming environments available today. The book is abundantly illustrated and includes sample code and countless best-practices strategies.

Matthias Scholz is a member of the LEGO Mindstorms Community Partners Program. His NXT-related Web site is extremely popular. He is also a frequent contributor to the well-known NXT blog, The NXT STEP. He majored in mathematics at the University of Bayreuth in Germany, and has held various positions in German IT enterprises.

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Robots have been a source of fascination to me since my childhood. That was during the time of the first Star Wars trilogy, with very humanlike robots appearing on the screen, such as C-3PO, who still reminds me of some friends of mine, and not so humanlike others, such as R2-D2 (who nev- theless also reminds me of some people I know). There were the books of Stanislaw Lem and Douglas Adams that discuss the philosophical questions related to the creation of artificial beings. Do androids dream of electric sheep? I still wonder. Yet all my attempts to build something similar on my own failed. The gizmos I'd assembled from wood and plastic not only looked strangely different from the ones I had in mind, but also didn't do anything (besides fall apart frequently). The time was not ripe for building robots of your own, unless you had a degree in electronic engineering, high soldering capabilities, and a well-endowed bank account to acquire all the special electromechanical parts required.

Inhalt

Contents at a Glance 5
Contents 6
About the Author 10
About the Technical Reviewer 11
Acknowledgments 12
Preface 13
Who This Book Is For 14
How This Book Is Structured 14
Prerequisites 16
Downloading the Code 16
Contacting the Author 16
Introduction 17
An Invention- Driven Tour Through the Life of Leonardo da Vinci 18
The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 31
The NXT Community 41
Summary 43
A 3,000-Foot Look at NXT Programming Environments 44
LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Software 45
RobotC 57
NXC 62
pbLua 66
leJOS NXJ 67
Summary 69
The Armored Car 70
Historical Background 70
Special Challenges 72
Building the Armored Car 74
Programming the Armored Car 112
Summary 120
The Catapult 121
Historical Background 121
Hardware Challenges 123
Building the Catapult 125
Programming the Catapult 161
Summary 179
The Revolving Bridge 180
Historical Background 180
Hardware Challenges 181
Building the Revolving Bridge 182
Programming the Revolving Bridge 223
Summary 239
The Aerial Screw 240
Historical Background 240
Hardware Challenges 244
Building the Aerial Screw 244
Programming the Aerial Screw 273
Summary 288
The Flying Machine 289
Historical Background 289
Hardware Challenges 290
Building the Flying Machine 292
Building the Remote Control 321
Programming the Flying Machine 330
Summary 341
Outlook: What NXT? 342
Enhancing the Five Robots 342
Remotely Controlling the Robots 344
Making Other Inventions of Leonardo with LEGO 345
Recommended Web Sites 347
Recommended Books 349
Installation and Configuration of the Programming Environments Used in the Book 351
LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Software 351
NXC 355
RobotC 357
leJOS NXJ 360
pbLua 363
Leonardo’s Letter of Application to the Duke of Milan 366
Glossary 368
Bibliography 372
Books 372
Web Sites 372
Index 374

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 8.9.2008
• Zusatzinfo: 369 p.
• Verlagsort: Berkeley
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Informatik ► Programmiersprachen / -werkzeuge
• Themenwelt: Informatik ► Weitere Themen ► Computerspiele
• Themenwelt: Informatik ► Weitere Themen ► Hardware
• Schlagworte: language • NXC • NXT-G • programming • Programming language
• ISBN-10: 1-4302-0258-0 / 1430202580
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4302-0258-5 / 9781430202585