An exciting Simulink utility for

LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT

Takashi Chikamasa
Advanced Support Engineer, MathWorks Japan

Background

Industry: engineers need to have a set of Model

Based Design skills to develop embedded
software/hardware

Academic: students need to be able to translate

theory into practical industry settings for their career

Key factors to explore Simulink in

Academia

Capable of simulating and visualizing complex dynamic

systems

Connection between the theory and the practical

applications of controls concepts

Easy integration to inexpensive hardware to compare

theoretical design with actual implementation

Project-based learning with industry tool and flavor of

industry development process
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Why LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT?

Enough performance to experiment control theory and

applications

ARM7 core MPU with 256kB ROM/64kB RAM

Bluetooth/USB/RS485/I2C communication
Servo motors with 1[deg] resolution encoder
Variety types of sensors (Light, Touch, Sonar, Acceleration, Gyro, Color)

Versatile in hardware and software

Can be built from basic robotics to advanced controls & embedded systems
Programming languages: NXT-G, NXC, Java(leJOS), C/C++ (nxtOSEK), Ada

Low cost, high quality and world wide support

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Embedded Coder Robot (ECRobot) NXT

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/13399

Model-Based Design environment for NXT

Application is simulated and visualized on the host computer

Compiled and downloaded to the NXT with a single mouse click
Real-Time Workshop Embedded Coder is used for code generation
Support for MATLAB R2006a to R2010b

Flavor of industry use cases

Industry proven RTOS (e.g. OSEK) in the NXT
Considered for MAAB controller style guidelines

Architecture of ECRobot NXT applications

Controller
for code generation
Visualized by
Simulink 3D Animation (option)

Plant for application (option)

NXTway-GS: self balancing two wheeled robot

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/19147

Includes detailed description and building instructions

Implemented state-space feedback and LQR using Control
System Toolbox

NXT Ballbot: self balancing robot on a ball

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/23931

NXT version of Ballbot that is originally developed by Ralph Hollis

at Carnegie Mellon University.
Includes detailed description and building instructions
Implemented state-space feedback and LQR using Control
System Toolbox

NXT SCARA: two-link planar robot arm

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/22126

Includes detailed description and building instructions

Robot movement is based on inverse kinematics

User projects using ECRobot NXT

Shizuoka University (Japan):

holds MBD course curriculum
http://architect.inf.shizuoka.ac.jp/curriculum/index.html

Delft University of Technology (Netherland):

developed NXTbike-GS application
http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/27694

ET ROBOCON (Japan):
Embedded software community holds line tracing robotics competition using
NXTway-GS balancer C API: http://www.etrobo.jp/2010/

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MathWorks at ET ROBOCON 2010

Tokyo, Japan (MNN) -- In September 4th, An ET ROBOCON local competition was
held in Tokyo. MathWorks (#23) got the 1st prize in the race and could be qualified
for the Championship in December.

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VU-LEGO Real Time Target by

Villanova University

Professor James Peyton-Jones

developed a new turnkey solution
for the NXT to be suited for
class room use cases
More intuitive model construction
for students and
support for multi-rate modeling/
code generation

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http://www.mathworks.com/academia/lego-mindstorms-nxt-software/legomindstorms-simulink.html

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Conclusions

Simulink and LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT are a good

combination to teach from theory to practical control
applications

Embedded Coder Robot NXT / VU-LEGO Real Time

Target can help to design MBD course in academia

Project-based learning for Model-Based Design will be

more popular in academia and industry

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