Tutorial NQC

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using NQC (Version 3.03, Oct 2, 1999) by Mark Overmars Utrecht University P.O. Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht the NetherlandsDepartment of Computer ScienceProgramming Lego Robots Preface The Lego MindStorms and CyberMaster robot s are wonderful new toys from which a wide variety of robots can be constructed, that can be programmed to do all sorts of complicated tasks. Unfortunately, the software that comes with the robots is, although visually attractive, rather limited in functio nality. Hence, it can only be used for simple tasks. To unleash the full power of the robots, you need a different programming environment. NQC is a programming language, written by Dave Baum, that was especially designed for the Lego robots. If you have n ever written a program before, don't worry. NQC is really easy to use and this tutorial will tell you all about it. Actually, programming the robots in NQC is a lot easier than programming a normal computer, so this is a chance to become a programmer in an To make writing programs even easier, there is the RCX Command Center. This utility helps you to write your programs, to send them to the robot, and to start and stop the robot. RCX Command Center works almost like a text processor, but with some extras. This tutorial will use RCX Command Center (version 3.0 or higher) as programming environment. You can download it for free from the web at the address http:/ ...

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• Publié par: Octey
• Nombre de lectures: 36
• Langue: English

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Programming Lego Robots using NQC

(Version 3.03, Oct 2, 1999)          

  by Mark Overmars                         Department of Computer Science Utrecht University P.O. Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht the Netherlands

Preface   The Lego MindStorms and CyberMaster robots are wonderful new toys from which a wide variety of robots can be constructed, that can be programmed to do all sorts of complicated tasks. Unfortunately, the software that comes with the robots is, although visually attractive, rather limited in functionality. Hence, it can only be used for simple tasks. To unleash the full power of the robots, you need a different programming environment. NQC is a programming language, written by Dave Baum, that was especially designed for the Lego robots. If you have never written a program before, don't worry. NQC is really easy to use and this tutorial will tell you all about it. Actually, programming the robots in NQC is a lot easier than programming a normal computer, so this is a chance to become a programmer in an easy way.   To make writing programs even easier, there is the RCX Command Center. This utility helps you to write your programs, to send them to the robot, and to start and stop the robot. RCX Command Center works almost like a text processor, but with some extras. This tutorial will use RCX Command Center (version 3.0 or higher) as programming environment. You can download it for free from the web at the address   http://www.cs.uu.nl/people/markov/lego/     RCX Command Center runs on Windows PC’s (’95, ’98, NT). (Make sure that you ran the software that comes with the Lego set at least once, before using RCX Command Center. The Lego software installs certain components that RCX Command Center uses.) The language NQC can also be used on other platforms. You can download it from the web at address   http://www.enteract.com/~dbaum/lego/nqc/     Most of this tutorial also applies to the other platforms (assuming you use NQC version 2.0 or higher), except that you loose some of the tools and the color-coding.   In this tutorial I assume that you have the MindStorms robot. Most of the contents also applies to the CyberMaster robots although some of the functionality is not available for those robots. Also the names of e.g. the motors are different so you will have to change the examples a little bit to make them work. Acknowledgements  I would like to thank Dave Baum for developing NQC. Also many thanks to Kevin Saddi for writing a first version of the first part of this tutorial.

 

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Contents    Prf_________________________________________________________________2   e ace ledgemen   Acknow ts 2 ____________________________________________________________________ Contents 3   ________________________________________________________________ I. Writing your first program ________________________________________________ 5   Building a _______________________________________________________________________   robot 5   ngCX Command C___________________________________________________________ Starti R enter 5 Writing the program____________________________________________________________________6     ng the prog___________________________________________________________________ Runni ram 7 your program _______   ___________________________________________________________ Errors in 7 Changing the speed 8 ____________________________________________________________________   Sumry____________________________________________________________________________   ma 8 II. A more interesting program_______________________________________________ 9   Making turns_________________________________________________________________________9     Repeatingmman___________________________________________________________________ co ds 9   ddingcomment_____________________________________________________________________ A 10 ry___________________________________________________________________________11   Summa III. Using variables _____________________________ 12   __________________________ Moving in a spiral____________________________________________________________________12     _____________________________________________________________________ Random numbers 13 Summay___________________________________________________________________________13   r ________________________________ _____________________ IV. Control structures 14   The if statement 14   ______________________________________________________________________   _____________________________________________________________________ The do statement 15 Summary_____________________________________________________________________15   ______ ________________________________ ______________________________ V. Sensors 16   ngor a___________________________________________________________________16   Waiti f sensor g _______________________________________________________________16   Actin on a touch sensor Light sensors________________________________________________________________________17   ummay___________________________________________________________________________18   S r _________________________________________________ VI. Tasks and subroutines 19   Tasks 19   ______________________________________________________________________________ Subroutines 20 __________________________________________________________________________     _______________________________________________________________________ Inline functions 20   Defining macro’s________________________________________________21 _______ ______________ y___________________________________________________________________________22   Summar VII. Making music ________ 23   _ ______________________________________________   Built-in sounds 23 _______________________________________________________________________ Playing sic________________________________________________________________________23   mu y___________________________________________________________________________ Summar 24   VIII. More about motors 25   __________________________________________________ Stopping gently __ ________ 25   ____________________________________________________________   Advanced commands 25 __________________________________________________________________ Varying motor sp__________________________________________________________________26   eed Summary ________________   26 ___________________________________________________________ IX. More about sensors 27   ___________________________________________________ Sensor mode and type__________________________________________________________________27     ____________________________________________________________________ The rotation sensor 28 Putting multiple sensors on one input______________________________________________________28   Making a proximity sensor______________________________________________________________29  

 

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