Content for EV3-G

Would you like to resolve all the problems with the light/color sensors that you have? And to make all of them work in a predictable, stable way even when using more than one MINDSTORMS colour sensors. 

When using Color sensors it is important to calibrate them depending on the light conditions in your venue. In this way, the calibrated sensor will show values between 0 and 100 independent of the light conditions. But using the default EV3 colour calibration available in the colour sensor block could lead to unpredicted problems that are difficult to track and resolved especially when used with multiple Color sensors. So in this series of tutorial we implement the calibration ourselves discussing the principles of colour sensor calibration.

In this first part we stop at an algorithm that is the base for following lines and explains the basic idea for the proportion. A must watch if you want to understand the robot at its behaviour. At the end the program still wont work so check out Part 2 and Part 3 for the final steps.  

Continuing with the Proportional algorithm for following lines. Smooth and stable this is the first part of the PID.

"Array initialization" is the first step in every program that involves Arrays. This applies to most programming languages and for EV3-G it is a must. 

In this tutorial, we would show you how to initialize the array and how to extract this logic in a new block

In this tutorial we introduce the basic algorithm for following a line with one sensor and review the algorithm for quickly followwing a black line with one sensor, implementing both with the Mindstorms EV3 robotics kit.

Last part of the series. The final touch of the program makes sure that it works and is following the line with the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Color Sensor in a smooth and fast way. 

Implement the program for array initialization.

Follow the video tutorials for initializing arrays and implement the program. 

The third robot has the brick and motors placed vertically. This is quite unusual and difficult, but the construction is very powerful because it saves space.

This video lesson is a revised version of Episode #1. Matt Gipson requested it in a comment. Using the EV3-G software we have developed a very simple program for following a line with two LEGO MINDSTORMS color/light sensors.

We extract the Proportional Line Following algorithm into a new block with parameters. This allows us to experiment with the Threshold, Constant Speed and Relaxation Coefficient. You can now easily use the block in you other programs without having to implement it. 

In this tutorial, we would implement a program that finds the minimum and maximum value detected by the sensor and stores this two values in an array.

Following the Advance Light/Color sensors calibration for a minimum value for a single sensor tutorial, in this one, we continue with finding the maximum value detected by a sensor and storing this value in an array.

In this tutorial we present a way to align your robot to a black line. Go through common difficulties, that the teams face, when they need to align their robot, and provide a solution for them.

A common question is how to display arrays on the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 brick screen. Displaying values from an array is not different from any other display operation. In this tutorial, we would look at displaying two specific values. The minimum and the maximum for a specific sensor from the Advance Calibration Course Section

In the course section for Advance Sensor Calibration we previously showed you how to find the minimum and maximum value for a single LEGO Mindstorms Color Sensor and to store this value in an array. The program was implemented with the EV3-G software. In this tutorial we are going to find the Min and Max for all the four sensors and to store all the 8 values in an array.

In this video lesson I will show you how to follow a black line using just one sensor, but fast enough so that you could use it during any robotics competition without wasting any time.

In this tutorial, we show you how to display all the values from an EV3-G array on the EV3 brick display. We are using an array Read Operation along with a loop. We are also detecting the loop counter and using it as an index to an array. It's basically the only viable way to do it. The process is commonly referred to as - "Iteration over an array" (although we still do not have an iterator in the programming language, we promise that one day we would do the super advance videos on "iteration" using the LEGO MINDSTORMS robots")  

One of the smartest things you could do in any software program is to extract logic in small reusable, simple, understandable units. In EV3-G these are called Blocks and we are going to extract the logic for finding a minimum and maximum for each of the sensors in a new block.

Following the Advance Sensor Calibration course section, we found the min and max values detected by each sensor. Now it is time for the real deal of the calibration. Detect the current value from the sensor and find what is the percentage of this value for the range between min and max. 

In this video tutorial I give a step-by-step explanation of how to implement a block for aligning to a line. The block was first used in lesson 28. Aligning to lines is probably the most powerfull way to know the position of the robot on the FLL Competition field and to be able to execute the missions precisely at 100% of the time.

Following the Advanced Sensor Calibration course section, it is time to extract the logic for getting a calibrated value into a new block. This block will have an input and on this input, we give the port number. The block will return the calibrated value for this port number. We've built all the other blocks only because of this almost final video here.