The LEGO® MINDSTORMS EV3 Laboratory: Build, Program, and Experiment with Five Wicked Cool Robots - Softcover

Benedettelli, Daniele

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1593275331 ISBN 13: 9781593275334

Publisher: No Starch Press, 2013

Synopsis

The LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3 set offers so many new and exciting features that it can be hard to know where to begin. Without the help of an expert, it could take months of experimentation to learn how to use the advanced mechanisms and numerous programming features.

In The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Laboratory, author Daniele Benedettelli, robotics expert and member of the elite LEGO MINDSTORMS Expert Panel, shows you how to use gears, beams, motors, sensors, and programming blocks to create sophisticated robots that can avoid obstacles, walk on two legs, and even demonstrate autonomous behavior. You’ll also dig into related math, engineering, and robotics concepts that will help you create your own amazing robots. Programming experiments throughout will challenge you, while a series of comics and countless illustrations inform the discussion and keep things fun.

As you make your way through the book, you’ll build and program five wicked cool robots:
–ROV3R, a vehicle you can modify to do things like follow a line, avoid obstacles, and even clean a room
–WATCHGOOZ3, a bipedal robot that can be programmed to patrol a room using only the Brick Program App (no computer required!)
–SUP3R CAR, a rear-wheel-drive armored car with an ergonomic two-lever remote control
–SENTIN3L, a walking tripod that can record and execute color-coded sequences of commands
–T-R3X, a fearsome bipedal robot that will find and chase down prey

With The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Laboratory as your guide, you’ll become an EV3 master in no time.

Requirements: One LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 set (LEGO SET #31313)

About this title

About the Author

Daniele Benedettelli is known worldwide for his original LEGO robots, including his Rubik’s Cube solvers and his humanoid robots. As a LEGO MINDSTORMS Community Partner (MCP), he helps to test and develop new MINDSTORMS products. He earned a master’s degree in Robotics and Automation from the University of Siena in Italy. He holds educational presentations and workshops on Information and Communications Technology around the world and teaches robotics at the high school level.

Reviews

Gr 6 Up—This informative guide to the LEGO EV3 Mindstorms kit provides clear directions for building and programming five advanced robots. In order to find this book useful, readers must already own the LEGO EV3 Mindstorms kit; author Benedettelli provides a chart of pieces in the appendix that readers should acquire if they own different versions of Mindstorms kits. Tech-savvy students will find the projects engrossing, but be forewarned that this text is not for novice Mindstorms users or those new to robotics. Black-and-white drawings may prove challenging for some to compare with real life colored LEGOs. Readers are treated to a comic narrative throughout the book that mimics the book's progress, which can help break up the tedious nature of instructional text and drawings, though they are more entertaining than informative. Benedettelli painstakingly describes how to manipulate the kits and their myriad parts and does not assume that the reader will have access to a computer, helpfully describing how to program without one. A good addition for schools serving students on robotics or LEGO teams, but this guide may not find wide readership in most public libraries.—Amy M. Laughlin, Darien Library, CT

Edition details

• Publisher: No Starch Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1593275331
• ISBN 13: 9781593275334
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432