Lego Robot Pages

Notice

These pages are no longer maintained. We stopped working on the RcxCC software. These pages are left here because they might still provide useful information for RIS users.

The current version of RcxCC is not compatible with the RIS 2.0 because it does not support the USB port. In case you want to work on this yourself you can download the source of RcxCC on the RCX Command Center page.

John Hansen has written a version of RcxCC that is compatible with newer versions if RIS. You can download his program at the Bricx Command Center pages.

Introduction

At the Department of Computer Science, Utrecht University, the Netherlands, we are currently investigating whether we can use the Lego Robots in our robotics teaching, as a means for the students to understand such issues as sensors, control, precision, etc. Here we want to combine autonomous robots, in which the software is downloaded, with robots that are controlled by a PC and, hence, can use other information, like e.g. from camera's.

Clearly, the Lego software that comes with the Robots, is not good enough for programming complicated behavior of the robots. So we decided to use the language NQC, developed by Dave Baum. To use this more easily we wrote the RCX Command Center, that is a wrapper around NQC, with many other options. See below on how to get it.

On these pages we will report on the progress we make, give tips and hints, and, hopefully, much more. Also take a look at our extensive links page.

Student Challenge

As part of their robotics course, students have to build a robot and perform some tasks with it. For a description of the challenge, pictures, code, etc. click here.

NQC Tutorial

NQC is in my opinion the most easy language to program the Lego Robots. But I can imagine that people who never programmed before might think it is difficult. To help all of you I wrote a tutorial on how to program in NQC. It does not assume any prior knowledge on programming. The current version of the tutorial is for NQC 2.0 (which is not compatible with NQC 1.x!) The tutorial is included in the distribution of Rcx Command Center.

English

The original version of the tutorial is in English:

English, Word 97 format (415 KB)
English, PDF format (280 KB)

Here are also the NQC examples used in the tutorial.

Dutch

Anton van Kan and André van der Beek have translated the tutorial into Dutch and added some assignments. Here you find it.

Dutch, Word 97 format (2 MB)

German

Martin Breuner has translated the tutorial into German and added some examples. Here you find it.

German, Word 97 format (1 MB)

Japanese

Alberto Palacios-Pawlovsky translated the tutorial in Japanese. Because I cannot read it I don't take any responsibility for its contents.

Japanese, PDF format (280 KB)

Check out his web site for more Japanese information.

Spanish

Roberto Reyes has translated the tutorial into Spanish. Here you find it.

Spanish, Word 97 format (430 KB)

Italian

Andrea Molteni has translated the tutorial into Italian. Here you find it.

Italian, Word 97 format (400 KB)

Thai

Anukoon Wongyai translated the tutorial in Thai. Because I cannot read it I don't take any responsibility for its contents.

Thai, DOC format (500 KB)

Portuguese

Anderson Grandi Pires has translated the tutorial into Portuguese. Here you find it.

Portuguese, DOC format (550 KB)

Portuguese, PDF format (550 KB)