Karch Marziah Build and Program Your Own Lego Mindstorms EV3 Robots

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LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Robots

Marziah Karch

800 East 96th Street,
Indianapolis, Indiana 46240 USA

Build and Program Your Own LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Robots

Copyright 2015 by Que Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Nor is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7897-5185-0
ISBN-10: 0-7897-5185-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014955375

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing November 2014

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Marziah Karch enjoys the challenge of explaining new gadgets and complex technology to beginning audiences. She is the author of several books, including Android Tablets Made Simple. Her writing has appeared in Wired magazine, About.com, and the GeekMom blog on Wired.com.

Marziah is a senior instructional designer for NWEA in Portland, Oregon. She holds a masters degree in Instructional Design and is working on a Ph.D. in Library and Information Management. When shes not feeding her geek side with new gadgets or writing about technology, Marziah enjoys life in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two children, all of whom are LEGO enthusiasts.

This book is dedicated to Pari and Kiyan. Keep on building.

Id like to thank Melissa Kelly for her photos, robot club attendance, and enthusiasm. Ada and Jay also get credit for helping. I hope they build amazing robots. Harold spent countless hours helping me build every single one of those demo robots. Travis Coon over at LEGO Education/Pitsco was amazingly helpful with demos and previews and suggested resources. Finally, Id like to thank the wonderful editorial staff at Pearson for everything they did to bring this book to press.

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If youve been looking for a fun introduction to robotics without having to solder wires or learn advanced programming languages, the LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 is just the ticket. You can make and program robots using a graphical interface and LEGO interlocking parts. When youre ready for a new challenge, you can hack the operating system and use more advanced languages such as Java. You can also connect EV3 robots to harness the combined computing power or have EV3 robots communicate wirelessly with each other.

When youre ready to get more social with your projects, there are First LEGO Robotics Leagues, LEGO robotics clubs, and LEGO roboticsthemed camps. You dont even have to be a kid to enjoy playing with LEGO robotics. I once helped build a team robot at a Google-sponsored booth at the SXSW Interactive festival in Austin, Texas. Part of the challenge even included hacking the Android phone app used as a remote controller for the robot. There wasnt a child in attendance, yet everyone was as excited as a kid in a candy store.