Lab session 1: Installing and LineFollower

Goals:

• build a simple robot using the provided instructions
• instal the LeJOS NXJ software [1]
• compile and run the program LineFollower.java [2]

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Building the robot:

It took actually more time than expected to build the robot, as we had too many pieces of some kinds and too few of others... but it's always fun to play with Lego!

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Installing LeJOS:

Installing Lejos has been quite problematic, in some of our machines.
Installing in Windows 7 was easy, but then the eclipse plugin wouldn't download and run the code in the NXT. It was solved using the "old fashioned way", which was described in a tutorial found in the internet [4].
Afterwards we found out that the eclipse plugin needed some extra configuration (NXJ home path), and then it worked as expected.
Installing in MAC has been, and still is a problem, even though some of our classmates managed to install and run from MAC.

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LineFollower.java:

We compiled the program and downloaded it to the brick. We made it run over the black line circuit in the lab:

We tried to change the sample time to half of the original example in the main control loop. It seems only to change a little of the oscilation of the robot.

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References:

[1] LeJOS, LeJOS Homepage
[2] Ole Caprani, LineFollower.java
[3] LeJOS installation instructions, link
[4] LeJOS + Eclipse tutorial, link