Core LEGO MINDSTORMS Programming: Unleash the Power of the Java Platform [Paperback]

Brian Bagnall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 21, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0130093645 | ISBN-13: 978-0130093646 | Edition: 1

LEGO Mindstorms robots can do more than you ever imagined! The secret: go beyond the built-in tools and leverage the power of Java. In Core LEGO Mindstorms, author Brian Bagnall shows you how, step by step. Working from beautifully rendered 3-D plans and photographs, you'll construct five unique robots. You'll master advanced proximity and compass sensors, even master MIT's new breakthrough in robotics: behavior control programming.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

• Complete 3-D plans for building five unique robots
• Advanced control techniques—including distance and compass sensors
• Behavior control programming, the breakthrough methodology invented at MIT
• For LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Invention System, versions 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0

Your LEGO Mindstorms robots can do more than you ever imagined. The secret: go beyond the built-in tools, and leverage the power of the Java platform—the world's hottest programming technology.

Core LEGO Mindstorms shows you how, step by step. Working from beautifully rendered 3-D plans, you'll construct five unique robots-each capable of increasingly powerful navigation. You'll build and program two powerful custom sensors-an accurate distance sensor and the "Holy Grail" of navigation sensors: the compass sensor.

Brian Bagnall, co-creator of the leJOS Java Virtual Machine for LEGO Mindstorms, starts with the absolute basics then teaches you sophisticated, never-before-published techniques for controlling LEGO Mindstorms robots. No matter what version of LEGO Mindstorms you own, this book will teach you how to build robots with remarkable intelligence and amazing power.

• Installing leJOS, the Java Virtual Machine designed for the LEGO Mindstorms RCX programmable controller
• Setting up your Java platform development environment for LEGO Mindstorms
• Programming rotation and custom sensors
• Using behavior control programming, the biologically inspired MIT breakthrough in robot control
• New techniques for improving navigation accuracy
• Gathering map data and transmitting it back to your computer
• For LEGO Mindstorms RIS versions 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0—including USB versions

About the Author

BRIAN BAGNALL is a Sun Certified Java Programmer and Developer and co-author of the Sun Certified Programmer for Java 2 Study Guide. He is a key programmer of leJOS, a Java SDK for Lego Mindstorms. Bagnall also develops distributed processing solutions for businesses with supercomputing requirements and has worked for IBM and other leading computer companies.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (March 21, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130093645
• ISBN-13: 978-0130093646
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #875,652 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I really enjoyed this book July 2, 2002

By Ferrari Mario

Format:Paperback

Brian succeeds brilliantly in the difficult tasks of introducing the reader to the Java language, to the Mindstorms system and to some programming techniques peculiar to robotics, and he does this in such a pleasant way that he doesn't even realize he's learning new concepts.

The book gives you enough elements of the Java language to make you immediately productive in using it with your Mindstorms kit, without including details about the language which would have made the book unnecessarily heavy. It won't make you a professional Java programmer, but it's not its goal.

From this foundation, Brian introduces you to some of the most powerful programming techniques aimed at robotics - like behavior control and navigation - using simple and clear examples.

The robots are nice and very well documented, and I have no doubt you will find them instructive and inspiring. And their code is well tested and ready to use.

Brian's style is very pleasant: he is able to always keep the your attention, never boring you explaining obvious concepts nor entering complex maters without the necessary gradualness. A touch of thin humour here and there makes the reading of this book a great experience.

To conclude:
- If you already know Java and want to learn how to use it for your Mindstorms robots, this book is for you.
- If you don't know Java, but want to push your Mindstorms beyond the limits of the LEGO software and are challenged by the opportunity to learn a new language, this book is for you as well.

This book definitely deserves its place in your bookcase among the best Mindstorms books.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Java@YourCommand August 10, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This book is a great guide to using Lejos (the Java Virtual Machine for the RCX). It starts with a basic java tutorial and an introduction to Lego Mindstorms and Lejos. The tutorial is far from complete and is not "beginner proof". Therefore I recommend that you have some basic programming skills before reading this book. The book goes on to cover several cool topics including behavior control, navigation and communication. It has two electronic projects in which you make a proximity sensor and a compass sensor. Although it has very clear instructions(it has pictures and written descriptions), I think that these projects would not be easy for a person with little experience with electronics to do. Also to complete one section of this book you need to purchase two lego rotation sensors. These can be bought at the lego-pitsco dacta shop which is located at pldstore.com I particulary like the communication section which shows how to control a robot from a web page, how to make a robot that can plot its course on a map etc. I highly recommend this book.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another star in the Mindstorms universe April 2, 2002

By Claude BAUMANN

Format:Paperback

Obviously Brian Bagnall is a programming mastermind! His book gives essential and clear instructions how to install and use the RCX Java-platform called leJOS. After an introduction to Lego Mindstorms with unexpected information even for Mindstorms-veterans (Brian solves the greatest mystery of the Mindstorms kit!), the book leads you through the concepts of Behaviour Control programming and robot-navigation, which are essential for advanced mobile robotics. Then you learn about RCX communications and advanced leJOS topics like Monitoring memory use and Hacking leJOS to save memory! Finally you find a list of part-providers, utilities and internet-resources. Every page of this book contains some new and useful infomation around the Mindstorms-project, which has seen so many books and internet-sites, that people might think, from now on you only produce repetitions. For the Core Lego Mindstorms Programming-book this is not the case, for sure.

The author illustrates his explanations through images, LEGO-robot building instructions and step-by-step first-class photos on how to realize a distance sensor and a compass sensor. He knows the art of clarifying complex things without becoming neither too scientific nor simply trivial. He respects the assertion that every mathematical equation will divide the audience by two. But all the reflections are profound enough for both scholars and non-scholars.

Some words about the compass, ... [url]. Brian honestly reveals the power and the limitations of an electronic compass. Doing so, he demonstrates well the force of the leJOS mathematical kernel, which he mostly wrote as contribution to the leJOS open source project. He shows how the normal mobile robot builder must deal by software means with reality, unprecision, error-sources, calibration.

This book is a worthy follow-up to the high-level book-series around extreme Mindstorming and beyond.

Brian, well done !