Winning LEGO MINDSTORMS Programming

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxii

   PDF

2. Meeting the NXT-G Software

   • James J. Trobaugh, Mannie Lowe

   Pages 1-11

3. Software Design Process

   • James J. Trobaugh, Mannie Lowe

   Pages 13-20

4. Working with My Blocks

   • James J. Trobaugh, Mannie Lowe

   Pages 21-41

5. When Things Go Wrong

   • James J. Trobaugh, Mannie Lowe

   Pages 43-55

6. Moving Data

   • James J. Trobaugh, Mannie Lowe

   Pages 57-73

7. Making Smart Decisions

   • James J. Trobaugh, Mannie Lowe

   Pages 75-95

8. Motors and Motion

   • James J. Trobaugh, Mannie Lowe

   Pages 97-119

9. Light Detection

   • James J. Trobaugh, Mannie Lowe

   Pages 121-139

10. Touching and Bumping

    • James J. Trobaugh, Mannie Lowe

    Pages 141-148

11. Seeing with Ultrasonics

    • James J. Trobaugh, Mannie Lowe

    Pages 149-158

12. Programming Like a Pro

    • James J. Trobaugh, Mannie Lowe

    Pages 159-177

13. Code Management

    • James J. Trobaugh, Mannie Lowe

    Pages 179-191

14. Programming Pitfalls

    • James J. Trobaugh, Mannie Lowe

    Pages 193-207

15. Tips and Tricks

    • James J. Trobaugh, Mannie Lowe

    Pages 209-224

16. Back Matter

    Pages 225-230

    PDF

Winning LEGO MINDSTORMS Programming is your ticket to successfully programming for fun and competition with LEGO MINDSTORMS and the NXT-G programming language commonly used in FIRST LEGO League events. The book is a companion title to author James Trobaugh’s acclaimed book on physical robot design, Winning Design!. This new book focuses squarely on the programming side of working with MINDSTORMS. Together the two books put you on a rock-solid foundation for creating with LEGO MINDSTORMS, whether for fun at home or in competition with a team.

Winning LEGO MINDSTORMS Programming sets the stage by emphasizing the importance of up front planning, and thinking about the challenge to be met. Learn to evaluate possible solutions by sanity-testing their logic before you put the effort into actually writing the code. Then choose your best option and write the code applying the techniques in this book. Take advantage of language features such as MyBlocks to enhance reliability and create easy-to-debug code. Manage your code as you change and improve it so that you can trace what you’ve done and fall back if needed. Avoid common programming pitfalls. Work powerfully with teammates to conquer competition challenges of all types.

• Provides solid techniques similar to those used by professional programmers, and optimized for the LEGO MINDSTORMS platform.
• Addresses key tasks important to competition such as line detection, line following, squaring of corners, motor stall detection, and more.
• Compliments Winning Design! by tackling the programming side of competition.

James J. Trobaugh is an experienced coach and leader in the FIRST LEGO League. He is author of the acclaimed book Winning Design!, focusing on the physical aspects of LEGO MINDSTORMS robot design. He s been involved with FIRST LEGO League since 2004 as coach for Team Super Awesome, and as a technical judge at LEGO World Festival. He is also the FIRST LEGO League Director of the Forsyth Alliance in Forsyth County, Georgia. James started out as a LEGO hobbyist by founding the North Georgia LEGO Train Club in 1998, and has found in LEGO robotics a natural blending of his LEGO hobby and his day job as a software architect. An added bonus is the joy of sharing his love of technology not only with his own children, but with kids in general.

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