Lego Mindstorm

What is the use for a robot in today’s world? That question was answered in Monday’s exercise in Science 184 with programming Lego Mindstorms robots. The exercise was filled with many different tasks that my group were told to program into the computer and then downloaded into the robots memory.

The first task was to take our built robots and plug them into the computer while running the program National Instruments LabVIEW. LabVIEW is a really interesting program that connects with the robot and makes it perform all different tasks like making it perform tricks and also being able to play music.

After getting a little familiar with the program we were told to run the motor forward, backward, and run the robot with various power levels. The final program diagram is the one we used to make the robot move forward, backward, and run at different speeds.                                                            

To take it to the next level we used another application that loops the timing of how long the robot will run. The next diagram we looked at showed the task of “looping.” The grey box around the diagram is the actual loop box that shows that particular program is set to a specific timing standard. The “I” in the bottom left hand corner of the box is used as number of times you as the program wants the robot to run. The equation you need is i=(0,1,2,3,4…) and at i=0 the program will run once.

We then were given the task to measure the distance and the velocity of the robots action. However, to keep it easy we only measured the length of how far the robot travels in a straight line. With a ruler we measured the diameter of the wheel and calculated the circumference of the wheel from centimeters into meters. The equation we used to measure the diameter was (circumference= p*diameter). We then recorded that measurement in the LabVIEW program. From this exercise I learned that the faster the robot is programmed to travel, makes the biggest difference in the length of travel. When set at a power level of 20, the robot traveled .12 meters; however, when set at 50 the robot traveled .25 meters. The action didn’t stop there because we then had to make the robot perform a full rotation with a one meter circle. This was accomplished by trail and error and by 10 trails we figured out the right configuration of wheel power. The result we came up with was the power level of the left wheel being .25 and a right wheel power of .45 which performed the task. My group added a sound bite to the robot which ended up being the Super Mario theme song. The process of adding a sound bite is as simple as choosing the sound mechanism, placing the icon on the diagram, and then simply select the sound you want.

The whole class then was treated with Mr. Vale’s presentation about the different heat engines. Some engines that he showed us were the Sterling engine and the Peltier junction.  The Sterling engine was presented as a wheel that spins from the steam coming from the hot water in the coffee cup. The heat would move a piston that lifts another piston, and then finally spins the wheel around without using any electricity. The next demonstration was with Peltier junction. This was an extraordinary device that included a cup of cold water and a cup of hot water. The device is shaped like a metal fork and one spoke goes into the cold water and the other in the hot water. After a while the blades would spin from the scientific mechanic of hot and cold creating electrical currents. The overall presentation the Mr. Vale gave was enlightening.