Labview Training for FRC with Lego Mindstorms

Training Material for FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Labview Environment using LEGO Mindstorms kits as a getting started point.

For people interested in the NXT-G language I highly recommend:

Arizona State's FLL resource page

Before starting the setup instructions are available in the

The slides are currently an ongoing effort and improvements are being made regularly.

A Great Overview of Labview by National Instruments:

https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-21180

My condensed version of Labview for people who know how to program:

Introduction to Robots and Programming

Intro to labview environment and debugging:

1 session: Move a robot, Move a fixed distance (Math in Labview and unit conversion)

Introduction to Boolean Logic and Decision Making in Labview

2 sessions: Intro to more debugging and Logic with sensors and case structures:

- If(and,or, not, equalty checks, Boundary checks) Then (do something: move, beep, turn off)

Logic and Decision Making

Intermediate Logic and Decision Making

(Section being updated for new version of FRC Labview, need to remove loop content)

Introduction to Loops

2 sessions: Intro to Loops

An overview of exercises for understanding programming loops in the real world

- (stop conditions, iterations, shift registers, unconstrained versus constrained loop speed)

Star Wars Theme Played with Loops, Math, Local Variables and Case Structures

Labview Source Vi for PC speaker instead of NXT

Intro To Loops and Decision Making

Introduction to and Using Finite State Machines

4 sessions: Finite State Machines

Finite State Machines (Under Development)

Full Original Version

Introduction to PID Controls and Discrete Time Systems

2 sessions: PID controls

Intro Video

Discrete Time Tracking

Sound Controlled Mindstorm Robot

The Lessons are more Units than individual lessons and vary greatly in length. Our team spent 4 sessions on Lessons1-2.5, went through lesson 3 in an hour and spent 4 weeks on Lesson 4.

At some point the lessons will be edited into appropriate sections, but for now content creation and revision is top priority. Lesson 4 on Finite State Machines has a LOT of information but the material should, hopefully, be high school level.

Feedback is Appreciated