Learning basic robotics and VAL II programming with LEGO Mindstorms robots

Abstract

This work describes how a low cost equipment, a LEGO Mindstorms NXT kit, has been used to teach VAL II, which is a standard programming language for industrial robots. Previously, the students had programmed the embedded system that moves the LEGO robot arms. Thus, they may compare programming the controller (the NXT brick, in NXC) and programming the industrial robot to execute a specific trajectory (the VAL II program). For that reason, the authors designed a software architecture that includes a wrapper to encapsulate the most relevant commands of VAL II and a programming environment. The wrapper was implemented for the same two degrees of freedom SCARA robot that students had already used. The software architecture provides the following functionalities: (1) simulate the trajectories by means of a simple graphical engine; (2) execute VAL II programs in a 2DoF LEGO robot; and (3) create a low cost remote laboratory.