VI Shots

NXT-G Online is software that allows you to program a virtual Lego Mindstorms NXT. Are you a school that doesn’t have enough cash for an NXT hardware set. No fear, this virtual software actually lets you program in NXT-G and download to a virtual NXT brain. Then you can execute the code and see it in virtual action.

To help better understand what is going on in the video, here is the sequence of chronologically events:

• A challenge was selected – a video that came up introduced the challenge.
• The simulated NXT-G programming environment was opened
• Wrote some code (4 motor blocks were dragged onto the palette, and each was set at a different power level).
• Downloaded the NXT-G program to the virtual NXT robot, which automatically opened the virtual environment.
• The robot was moved to where we wanted it to start.
• The virtual NXT brick was opened and we ran the program that was just created. The robot moved accordingly.

Note that the release version of NXT-G Online also has the ability select different sensors and motors for the virtual robot after which you can go back and change your code to make use of your modifications.

Source: The NXT STEP – LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Blog

At the end of the video, Maria talks a little about here background and the K10 robotics platform which NASA used in the Canadian Arctic recently. The robots, K10 Black and K10 Red, carried 3-D laser scanners and ground-penetrating radar. The two NASA robots surveyed a rocky, isolated polar desert within a crater in the Arctic Circle. The study helped scientists learn how robots could evaluate potential outposts on the moon or Mars.

Resources mentioned in video:

• Intelligent Robotics group
• NASA Robots Practice Moon Survey in the Arctic Circle (Haughton Crater Site Survey Field Test)
• Gigapan Website
• Gigapan Hardware
• Download Video

Additional Video:

Galileo is the innovator of a unique breakthrough technology, The Galileo Wheel which combines wheel and track in a single component. The simple mechanism enables switching back and forth between the two modes within seconds. The technology enables the device to use wheels whenever possible, and tracks whenever needed.

They are currently looking for partners to adapt their invention to the consumer robotics market after successfully landing a contract with an Israeli defense contractor.

Resources in this Video:

• Download Video
• Galileo Mobility Instruments
• Robodevelopment 2007

Additional video:

Resources mentioned:

• Download Video
• Microsoft Robotics Studio
• Robodevelopment 2007

Braintech’s VOLTS-IQ Visual Intelligence Software Suite provides feature recognition, object localization and robot guidance in the form of Microsoft Robotics Studio (MSRS) services.

VOLTS-IQ uniquely combines Braintech’s proven robot vision expertise with Microsoft’s powerful MSRS service-based architecture. Using VOLTS-IQ, researchers, commercial product developers and hobbyists can “vision-enable” their robotic projects and products with unprecedented ease and speed, leap frogging the traditional barriers involved with vision development and bringing their ideas to life faster than ever.

Resources mentioned in this video:

• Volts-IQ
• Microsoft Robotics Studio
• Braintech
• Mindstorms NXT

Resources mentioned in Video:

• Infinity Project
• NI Speedy-33
• HiTechnic
• LabVIEW
• Lego

Are you working with LabVIEW on the Mac? Tell us about your experiences in the comments.

Check out all their great videos at: sbmsteenpress.org