Reader small image

You're reading from  Learning Lego Mindstorms EV3

Product typeBook
Published inJan 2015
Publisher
ISBN-139781783985029
Edition1st Edition
Right arrow
Author (1)
Gary Garber
Gary Garber
author image
Gary Garber

Gary Garber teaches physics, math, and engineering at Boston University Academy. Gary is the president of the New England Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers and has led dozens of professional development workshops in education at both the local and national levels. Gary runs the Boston University FIRST Robotics program. He has run and hosted numerous robotics workshops in VEX, Tetrix, and LEGO platforms. He has run dozens of LEGO robotics tournaments and spoken on robotics education at both local and national conferences. His robotics team has worked with Engineers Without Borders, NASA, and the National Science Teachers Association on a variety of engineering and education projects. He is currently an educational consultant, working to develop new software tools for the classroom, at the Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach, which is a pioneer in LEGO Robotics Education. He is the author of Instant LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3, Packt Publishing. He currently resides in Massachusetts, US. When he is not playing with LEGO, robots, or toy trains, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Catalina, and their two children, Alejandro and Leonardo.
Read more about Gary Garber

Right arrow

Programming bugbears


The EV3 Programs provided by LEGO with the software are highly impressive, but are nearly impossible to understand. The LEGO tutorials do accomplish their goal of introducing the reader to the blocks and vernacular of EV3 programming. The provided models demonstrate the potential of the kit for the advanced hobbyist. This is a great marketing tool for LEGO when one watches videos of the extremely cool models that can be built with EV3. However, the programs are entirely lacking in any kind of documentation. One of the main reasons I wrote a book for the intermediate level user is this need for explanation of these great programs and to help bridge the gap between the rudimentary tutorials and the advanced models.

There are great advantages to visual programming languages such as LabVIEW, Scratch, and the EV3 LEGO MINDSTORMS software. They can be just as powerful as line code, but examining the main code for the Gyro Boy program in the following screenshot, we can see...

lock icon
The rest of the page is locked
Previous PageNext Page
You have been reading a chapter from
Learning Lego Mindstorms EV3
Published in: Jan 2015Publisher: ISBN-13: 9781783985029

Author (1)

author image
Gary Garber

Gary Garber teaches physics, math, and engineering at Boston University Academy. Gary is the president of the New England Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers and has led dozens of professional development workshops in education at both the local and national levels. Gary runs the Boston University FIRST Robotics program. He has run and hosted numerous robotics workshops in VEX, Tetrix, and LEGO platforms. He has run dozens of LEGO robotics tournaments and spoken on robotics education at both local and national conferences. His robotics team has worked with Engineers Without Borders, NASA, and the National Science Teachers Association on a variety of engineering and education projects. He is currently an educational consultant, working to develop new software tools for the classroom, at the Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach, which is a pioneer in LEGO Robotics Education. He is the author of Instant LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3, Packt Publishing. He currently resides in Massachusetts, US. When he is not playing with LEGO, robots, or toy trains, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Catalina, and their two children, Alejandro and Leonardo.
Read more about Gary Garber