LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 ROBOTICS
Abdulla Bin Al Zubair Private School

EV3 INTRODUCTION

BATTERY
• Capacity 2050 mAh
• Charge time – less than four hours
• Can use AA batteries

SENSORS

MOTOR
• Built in reducer which enables to reduce speed and
increase torque
• Accuracy (1°)

SCREEN
Wireless connection
Battery level
USB connection
EV3 Name
1 – Cancel button
2 – OK button
3 – Navigate

Indicator lights
• Red on - Booting, updating, shutting down
• Red Flashing – Busy
• Orange - Alert, ready
• Blinking orange - Alarm, in operation
• Green on – ready
• Flashing green - the program is running

EV3 ports

Battery
• Don’t use different batteries
• Remove batteries if EV3 is
not in use for long time
• Don’t use damaged batteries
• Don’t charge batteries!
• Economical use of battery
Reduce volume
Use sleep mode
Switch off bluetooth and WiFi
if not needed
Don’t hold motors stopped
when not needed

PROGRAMMING
Example of Program using scratch.

PROGRAMMING

MISSION 1
• Program robot using controller:
• 1. Drive straight 5 sec
• 2. Drive straight 5,75 sec
• 3. Drive straight until obstacle

MISSION 2
• Program robot drive square

SOUND SENSOR
• Measure sound pressure(volume) decibel
• Range 0-100
Sound pressure decibel Consequence
160 Physical injuries
90 Loud sound
80 Scream
70 Speech
60 Office/ talking in distance
50 Quiet living room

MISSION 3
• Program robot to turn when hands are clapped

MISSION 4
• Program robot to turn when sound level changes. Choose
NXT Sound Sensor – Change – dB
• Sound level is yours
to select

Touch sensor
• Works as simple switch
• Three positions
• LEGO cross is on the front of the sensor

MISSION 5
• Make a program:
• 1. Drive until obstacle
• 2. Drive back and turn
• 3. Drive towards starting point
until there is sound

LIGHT SENSOR
• Includes LED (can be switched off)
• Enables to measure reflected or ambient light
• Can measure 7 different colors
Lighting diode
Receiving diode

MISSION 6
• Program robot to drive between to lines: when first line is
reached, robot goes back. When rear line is reached,
robot goes forward again.

ULTRASONIC SENSOR
• Range 3-250 cm
• Includes
microprocessor
• Bigger the object,
better it works
• Accuracy 1 cm
• Can detect other
ultrasonic sensors
OBJECT
SIGNAL
SIGNAL

MISSION 7
• Program robot to stop 30 cm from obstacle

GYRO SENSOR
• Can detect robot
rotation speed and
angle
• Enables to make
precise turns and
balance robots
• Angle accuracy ± 3º
• Max rotation speed
440 º/s

MISSION 8
• Make the robot turn 90° with gyro sensor

MISSION 9
• Make the robot to follow line

MISSION 10
• Make the robot drive by sound sensor:
• If sound level is below or equal 50 dB – robot drive straight
• If sound level is above 50 dB – robot turns right

MISSION 11 – Taxi drive
• Program robot to drive through model city
• Driving can be programmed using rotation sensors or
outer sensors learned before

MISSION 12 – parallel programming
• Car burgler alarm: robot makes sound when
• Robot is touched
• Robot is approached too close
• There is loud sound
• Robot is moved - gyro
• Every mission is in different branch

MISSION 13 - screen
• Display smiley face on robot screen!
• For that we use screen block

MISSION 14
• Make a robot that listens surrounding sound. If it is quiet,
robot makes happy face. If it is loud, robot makes sad
face.

MISSION 15
• Write operation „1+1=2“ to screen
• Use text block and screen block.

MISSION 16
• Write operation „14875+36987 =„ to screen
• Make the robot to calculate answer

MISSION 17 - Animation
• Make a cool cartoon using screen images.
Cartoon should be at least 20 sec in length
• Animation must have point and punch line .

MISSION 18 – Compare blocks
• Logic
• Make a robot that follows a human being. If person is
standing 30 – 40 cm away, robot waits.
• If person is further, robot drives towards a person
• If person is closer, robot increases distance

MISSION 19– Random number
• Make a robot:
• Drive until obstacle (touch sensor or sonar)
• Drive back
• Turn random time to random direction
• Start from beginning

Collecting data
• Demonstration – Collecting data from sound
sensor

MISSION 20 – Interrupt loop
• Following a line with obstacle
• Robot must follow a black line until there is
obstacle and then tries to pass it.
• Two ways to interrupt a loop:
• Loop condition is set by distance sensor
• Use loop interrupt

MISSION 21 – LEGO Space Challenge
• Solve LEGO Space challenge (group work)

APPROACHES
• Working in couples
• Some missions require larger groups
• In most cases, one student builds a robot, another
programs it
• Usually two school lessons in a row (minimum)
• Robot is tool for solving problems, not an object

APPROACHES
 Mission must be personal, have meaning
 Students encounter interest to solve mission
 Students face real problems. Solving these problems
require knowledge from school lessons. Now this
knowledge has a meaning for them because there is a
real need for it.
 Process must be documented and conclusions must be
made – reflective learning
 Teacher is just a coach

APPROACHES– rules in classroom
 Manual from sample course

APPROACHES GENERAL
 Discovery learning
 Individual tutoring
 Problem based learning
 Competition based learning

WHAT HAVE WE LEARNT?
• 4 sensors – touch, sound, light and ultrasonic
• 4 output ports – motors
• LEGO EV3 programmable brick
• Connection: USB, WiFi, Bluetooth