The Lego EV3 robot starts with the "brick"—the central component that houses its "computer" and allows for connections to motors, sensors, power source, and to the computer where you produce your programs. You have to add motors, wheels, etc. to your robot. Once that is done, you have to develop your programs. We will do so, using the LabView programming environments on the laptop computers in the cart. More detailed instructions for building your robot and programming it are provided below.
You will need to get a brick and a box of robot parts in order to do your work. When you get the brick, notice how it is plugged in so you can plug it in again when class is over. Have fun!
Once you have your brick and box of parts, open your box. You should see a cardboard top with various pictures. On the reverse of the top is a guide to what is in each tray. (You may also find a sheet of paper with the same guide). Remove the top and the tray of small parts. Below the tray you will find wheels, motors, wires, etc, and a pictorial instruction booklet to guide putting together your robot. Turn to page 4 to start construction. Follow the guide through page 38 to put together a basic robot. Stop adding parts at that point and start programming.
Click on the Start/Windows icon (lower left of the screen) and select "All apps" at the bottom of the window. Scroll down to "LEGO MINDSTROMS Educati..." and click on the "LEGO MINDSTROMS Educati..." application. You can look around or go straight to programming.
About the right half of the screen is probably taken up by a window (that we don't need). Close it by selecting the rightmost icon on the screen—mouseover will display "Close Content Editor".
There is a "think" in the left center of the window, it is similar to Scratch's "When the green flag is clicked" block. You'll be adding blocks to it. There a several color-coded tabs at the bottom that refer to "Action", "Flow Control", "Sensor", "Data Operation", "Advanced", and "My Blocks". They have counterparts from Scratch, so should not be too unfamiliar.
At the bottom right of the screen is the window that allow communication with the robot's "brick" or controller.
Some initial tasks before you start programming:
There is a cord in the box that allows you to plug one end into your computer via a regular USB plug and the end into your brick via a mini USB plug. (All the other wires have ethernet connectors on both ends.)
press & hold the center button for about a second. The brick should beep and green lights come on.
there is a single button just below the screen on the left; press it twice. A small pop-up window with a power button icon should appear with an X and a check mark. Press the right-of-center button to select the check mark (it becomes highlighted). Finally, press the center button. A couple of sounds are made and a red "shutting down" message appears. It takes a minute or two to finish the shut down process.
Clearing out the brick's memory will allow you to focus on what you produce (rather than the junk that other people produced before you).
You may wish to view Darren Wilson's video that provides some information about settings on the various blocks.
Start programming. Some (perhaps) useful information is given below.
Here are some tasks you should accomplish with your Lego robot
If you complete these building blocks in the time allowed, you might consider putting them together to do larger tasks or identify additional building blocks for some larger task, e.g.,