PID Controller and the NXT

Fellow MCPer Philo emailed me this link to a tutorial involving PID controllers and NXT (written by James Sluka)... take a look and let us know what you think.

It's got some math (not too heavy) and some very good discussion on robot control.

Don't lose your head, drive safe!

The schools started again, and the UK this PSA ( UK: Public Service Ad) for the cycling safety organization Biking Rules, a little yellow Lego fellow takes a massive hit in the name of raising awareness about riding through a red light.

He’s lucky – he can reassemble himself and carry on about his business, which is fortunate as he’s a reckless idiot. However you, dear reader, are not made from Lego. So be careful out there.



Martyn

Fellow blogger gets some attention

He would never toot his own horn... so I'll do it for him! Congratulations to one of our bloggers, Jonathan Daudelin... out of over 1000 NJIT freshman students, he was picked as one of the freshmen this article focuses on.

Way to go, Jonathan.

Manty, third bonus model NXT 2.0 (8547)

Proudly we announce the third bonus model for the NXT2.0 box. Laurens Valk (blogger at this blog) and creator of various interesting walking models has designed a praying mantis “Manty”. This model shows up next to Morph on the back cover of the box.

The model has a touch sensor to automatically synchronize its legs and an ultrasonic sensor to detect your hands, so it can avoid you.

Enjoy building

Martyn

new NXT blog

From reader Chris S.:

I want to announce my new Lego NXT blog, www.tinkernology.blogspot.com. My goal is to show several of the techniques I have learned over the 20 or so years that I have been building with Technic and Mindstorms.

I have started my blogging with a project that I think is really great. It is a system that uses the HiTechnic IRLink sensor and some PF motors to control several air valves. Basically, it is a cool way to control up to eight pneumatic valves with one NXT using only one port.

Are you Linkedin?

Anyone using Linkedin might want to check out a new group for LEGO Mindstorms Enthusiasts and Fans. It is hosted by Martin Alvarez Milan, a curriculum developer and owner of Robots4Kids.

Minimalistic remote control for the NXT

When using Philo's great NXT joystick remote control for my basketball-playing NXT robots at Fana'Briques in June, I noticed that the very young users had some difficulties in getting along with it (in particular due to the size and the problems they had with understanding how to manage turns). So for the SteinCHenwelt LEGO® event ten days ago, I decided to come up with a more simplified one that met the reduced requirements of my soccer robots that debuted there.
The result was the rather minimalistic Remote Control No 3, a Bluetooth-based NXT remote control that uses the four buttons on the NXT Brick itself to control the movement of a remote NXT robot (forward, backward, left, right).
The two attached touch sensors can be optionally used to trigger special functions on the controlled robot (in the case of the soccer robots, it was kicking the ball).

At SteinCHenwelt, the gamepad-oriented style of the remote control and its comparatively small size went down well with the youngsters (you can see its usage in the SteinCHenwelt movie).

Remote Control No 3 is a good option when you do not need to control the actual speed of the remote robot. For the SteinCHenwelt, I programmed it with leJOS NXJ, the Java platform for the NXT (the programs can be downloaded from the associated page at my NXT web site); however, writing NXT-G programs for it should not be that difficult, also.