**1.3 Scope and summary of the research work**

With e-learning emerging from the shadow of its post-dot.com readjustments, an entire generation of new practitioners is being drawn to e-learning for the first time (Sehurutshi et., al 2009). The virtual instrument and Lego Mindstorm is a laboratory set up which is done to teach various people on how complicated projects can be made easier with the use of toys called Lego bricks. The NXT is actually a little computer and interface unit that you can program to take sensor input from up to three inputs and react to that input by controlling the direction and speed of up to three motors. Combined with the technical parts, you can quickly build and program sophisticated, mobile, autonomous robots.

In this project, Lego bricks are built to perform different tasks. The NXT robot was programmed manually with different configurations. Each sensor was tested with a short program and it worked very well. Upon testing all sensors, (sound, light, ultrasonic and touch sensors) the software was used to develop exercises comprising of a combination of different sensors. The results of testing the brick manually and with the NXT software were the same.

The main components of the project are LabVIEW and Mindstorm NXT softwares. It is with these softwares that our focus is on. The NXT is actually a little computer and interface unit that that can be programmed to take sensor input from up to three inputs and react to that input by controlling the direction and speed of up to three motors. Combined with the technical parts, sophisticated program can be built quickly to control mobile, autonomous robots. It is an autonomous Lego microcomputer that can be programmed using a PC. The NXT serves as the brain of Lego Mindstorms inventions. It uses sensors to take input from its environment, process data, and signals output motors to turn on and off. Users first build their robot using the NXT and Lego elements. They then create a program for their invention using NXT code, a simple yet powerful programming language. Next, the program can be downloaded to the NXT using a special infrared transmitter. The creations can now interact with the environment, and fully independent.

#### **1.4 Related work**

66 E-Learning – Organizational Infrastructure and Tools for Specific Areas

Technology has advanced a great deal since the beginning of the 20th century. The workplace and especially the industry have had evident and visible use of modern technology in handling operations and conducting other works. Today, the main work a human being does

From another point, if students have to make projects in the machine shop, they cannot make very complicated parts. With Lego bricks, they can prototype far more quickly, and the complexity of the part correspondingly increases. The same is true with the software such as LabVIEW that allows rapid software prototyping and students can develop much more complicated software without many of the difficulties associated with a syntactical language. By letting students create the experiment themselves, rather than giving them a canned experiment, one can get them more excited about and more involved in what they

To learn the basic interfacing of different software; LabVIEW and Mindstorm NXT in

 To advance technology, especially in the developing countries, in making it known to the people that a human operated task can be performed by programmed equipment. To take the engineering technology to the people i.e. promoting engineering for the

In this work, the problem of developing a laboratory kit that allows students to go through all steps of synthesizing a control system, a dynamic system and a process plant is addressed. Students assembled the process they were controlling, including placing sensors and control valves, using a collection of process units, pipes and fittings that have simple quick release connectors. It must be noted that to accomplish these student learning goals,

Require only standard power and water so setups can be used outside traditional

Can be used as a lecture demonstration or active learning exercise in a regular class

Are simple and safe enough to be used by unsupervised students for out of class

With e-learning emerging from the shadow of its post-dot.com readjustments, an entire generation of new practitioners is being drawn to e-learning for the first time (Sehurutshi et., al 2009). The virtual instrument and Lego Mindstorm is a laboratory set up which is done to teach various people on how complicated projects can be made easier with the use of toys called Lego bricks. The NXT is actually a little computer and interface unit that you can

modeling a simple industrial tool to carry out and execute assigned duties. To apply the virtual instruments and the Lego mind storm in the workplace.

Are inexpensive enough that multiple steps can be easily purchased

Allow for application to various other engineering classes in future

the laboratory kits should be an inexpensive flexible system that:

Can easily be used for open ended projects

**1.3 Scope and summary of the research work** 

is manufacturing or designing and programming a device to perform certain tasks.

**1.1 Problem statement** 

are learning.

society.

**1.2 Objective of the research work** 

Objective of the project are:

Are portable

session

assignments

laboratory facility

In 1989 Martin created the MIT Robot Design course following from Flowers' Introduction to Design course that was offered in the Mechanical Engineering department. The work on this project culminated into a textbook (Martin F., 1989). Students learn about the basics of building robots from kits and the course ends with a contest. Yanco in 2001 has adopted this course using the Bot-ball game as the tournament at the end of the term (Martin F., 2000). Mataric in 1998 has developed an award winning course called Introduction to Robotics (Yanco H., 2001) which takes a hands-on approach to the field of robotics. Students use both Handy board microcontroller and Lego MindStorms system. Another introductory course on robotics that uses Lego MindStorms is the Building Intelligent Robots course taught by Dean at Brown in 2001 (Martaric M., 1998). A few people have developed courses using hands-on robotics that do not focus on teaching robotics as the main subject. Littman's course on Programming Under Uncertainty (Dean T., 2001) teaches about a variety of methods for programming as its title says, under uncertainty, including Markov Decision Process and POMDP's and variety of machine learning techniques like reinforcement learning and genetic algorithms. Students in this course used Lego robots to demonstrate their knowledge to the methodologies studied. The course ended in a project, where some of the students developed their own application for their robots, from line-following task to making breakfast. One of these, described in (Littman M., 1999), carried out on-line reinforcement learning to complete a task analogous to the pole-balancing-an indication of what is possible at the upper limit of the MindStorms capabilities. Since 2001, Klassner has been teaching introductory artificial intelligence using Lego MindStorms and Russel & Norvig followed in 2003 (Baum D., 2000b and Klassner F., 2001) . Klassner's students make extensive use of the robots and are supported by tools developed by Klassner and his colleagues (Klassner F., and Anderson S 2003). These extend the capabilities of the RCX, making use of the infra-red communication built into the unit (normally used for

Lego Based Computer Communication for Business and Learning 69

Instruments. The ROBOLAB software is based on Lab VIEW, the software that was used to control the Sojourner rover on Mars in 1997. In Lab VIEW, programs are called virtual instruments (VI). In the professional edition of Lab VIEW, the software uses a computer as a virtual instrument. The Lab VIEW program is then used to acquire and analyze data. ROBOLAB programs are saved as .vi files. There are different programming levels within ROBOLAB. The Pilot and Inventor sections of ROBOLAB are based on the Lab VIEW programming language. It is an icon-driven language based on a logical sequencing if

The Pilot section of ROBOLAB is made up of a series of templates that have a format associated with them. It is an easy way to introduce the logical sequence to students. The user can not modify the templates and therefore the program will always work. The program will always run each time and do the commands as listed in the sequence presented. The Inventor section of ROBOLAB uses the same command icons as in Pilot. There are more command icons as the user moves into higher levels of the program. Inventor is less structured allowing for greater potential for the software. The Investigator section allows users to collect and analyze data and create projects. It includes all the features of the ROBOLAB Programmer. Project management features are built into ROBOLAB Investigator. They include all the components needed to investigate questions with the RCX inventions. This includes writing programs, uploading data, viewing data, computing with data and documentation of that data. This software runs on either PC or Mac. The PC version requires Windows 98. There are several new features in this version:

Pilot - level capability for uploading a program from RCX to computer

As already mentioned, the heart of the system is the RCX, i.e. an autonomous LEGO microcomputer that can be programmed with either a PC or Mac computer. The RCX can be considered the "brain" of the system. It uses sensors to take input from its environment, to process data and to signal output motors and lamps to turn on and off. Students build their device using the RCX and the LEGO pieces in the building sets. They then create a program for their device using the ROBOLAB programming language. They then download their program to the RCX using the infrared transmitter. Their device can now interact with the environment, totally autonomous of the computer. There are 3 output ports - A, B, and C. These are connection points for LEGO motors, lights and other sensors. There are 3 input ports - 1, 2 and 3. These are connection points for sensors such as: touch sensor that turns the motors on and off when activated. Light sensor that allows RCX to differentiate between light and dark. Temperature sensor that distinguishes between varying degrees of

The RCX brick has an infrared eye that allows the brick to communicate with the computer via the infrared transmitter (IR). It must be aimed towards the IR transmitter to function. Firmware is the RCX operating system level software. It must be downloaded to the RCX before the RCX can receive and execute a program from the computer. The firmware

images and is basically independent of written language.

Piano Player - updated musical support

The RCX Brick (Robotic Command Explorer)

temperature. Additional sensors are available for data logging.

USB support

Extended help features Digital camera interface New RCX firmware Web support Auto wiring of icons


downloading programs) to allow off-board control. The description of the robot blocks maybe as shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Description of robot blocks.
