LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3

Overview of what is going to happen in module 3

Today we will focus on another block which will allow our robots to make decisions. This block is in the Flow Control palette and is called “Switch”.

In this video lesson I am building a LEGO Mindstorms EV3 active attachment powered by a small gear wheel. The attachment could move up and down, it is very useful for collecting objects. It could easily be adapted and used on other robots.

We are making a parallel with Video Lesson 56 from the series and we are also showing ways to improve the stability of an axle which is most of the time neglected, but could lead to great problems.

In the video we reach a conclusion. We have energy accumulated and to keep the system turning we need about 1J of energy each second to keep it turning.

Have you noticed that sometimes the gyroscope sensor does not measure the angle correctly? This is because that is not the thing he was created to measure!

The LEGO Mindstorms EV3 set comes with two LARGE motors. But even though these motors look almost the same they are not quite the same. There are always some differences in their behaviour. If you have more than two motors, because you bought them or you won them somewhere at a competition, it is worth doing an experiment to find which pair of motors works best.