Skip to Main Content

Robots @ SIT

Get hold of one of the available Robots at SIT Library and start your robotics journey today!

LEGO Mindstorms EV3 eLearning Course

Follow the instruction here to access linkedin learning via your SIT account. Then click here to take the Lego Mindstorms EV3 introduction course on Linkedin to begin your journey. After completing the course, you can proceed to install the software and play with it follow the instructions below.

The course covers:

  • Installing the LEGO Mindstorms software
  • Exploring the programming interface
  • Connecting to the EV3 brick
  • Downloading and running prebuilt programs
  • Coordinating motor movement
  • Calibrating the sensors
  • Transferring data with data wires
  • Adding logic with switch blocks
  • Looping actions
  • Troubleshooting problems with LEGO Mindstorms
  • Broadcasting sounds and displaying images
  • Updating LEGO Mindstorms
ev3dev.org provides excellent resources on getting started, including alternative libraries for the various programming codes that work with Lego Mindstorms EV3 robots and Raspberry Pi.

Software Installation

Download the EV3 Home application which also contains the Scratch programming language. The application is available to download on MacOS, Windows 10, iOS and Android tablets.

 

Scratch is a "drag and drop" programming interface which is designed to make coding easier for beginner programmers.

 

Steps to download EV3 Home Application

1. Download the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Software HERE

2.  The link will redirect you to the app store on your machine (Mac app store/ Microsoft store).

3.  Download and install the application in your respective app stores.

4. Run the application "MINDSTORMS HOME"

Introduction to Block Programming

When the Mindstorms application is launched, you will see the available blocks, grouped by functionality (eg. movement, sound), in the block palette.

 

Functionalities:

  • Motors and movement -  Used to move and steer the robot.
  • Display - Display graphics in the EV3 Brick
  • Sound - Make sounds with the EV3 Brick
  • Event and Control - These 2 categories of blocks allow us to perform actions when a certain condition/event has been fulfilled/detected.

For example:

If red is detected - Stop all movement. Else, if green is detected - Proceed moving straight.

This concept is analogous to traffic lights. Without event and control blocks, we will be unable to control and perform such decision-making.

  • Sensors - Another important block, is used to control the different sensors. It is often attached to an event loop to be able to trigger different actions when a certain reading has been detected.
  • Operators - Code blocks enable us to perform arithmetic, modular arithmetic, bit-wise operations such as AND, OR, NOT.
  • Variables - Create your own variables that can be set to 0 or 1.

 

 

        Click HERE to see more on EV3 Sratch documention.