RobotC Tutorial 1-The Basics

RobotC is a language that one would use to program a Lego Mindstorms Robot. The kits are a bit pricey, but they offer an amazing amount of possibilities–from a simple bot that moves and turns or one that can flush your toilet or tear off toilet paper strips, to more complex designs that could potentially solve a Rubik’s Cube if one knew how to program it. That is what I’ll be showing you.

Starting Off

RobotC is a programming language geared towards robotics. It is primarily used with Lego Mindstorms. It is available for download at http://www.robotc.net/download/nxt/ (there is a 30 day free trial ). RobotC is only available for Windows, but it can be run on a mac with Windows virtualization /emulation software.

You will also need a Lego Mindstorms kit. I recommend that you build the standard model if you’re new to this, because it’s easy to build and it will work just fine.

Once you’ve downloaded RobotC on Windows, go to Programs>Robotics Academy>RobotC for MINDSTORMS Building License>RobotC for MINDSTORMS

Running Your First Program

Once your robot is built, you need to plug it into your computer via the USB cable that comes with your robot. Open RobotC and go to Robot>Download Firmware to download the firmware onnto the NXT device.

To start I would recommend downloading a sample program onto your NXT. Go to File>Open Sample Program and open Training Samples to MotorC Forward. Open it and go to Robot>Compile and Download Program to load it onto your NXT. To run it, on the NXT menu, go to My Files>SoftwareFiles>MotorC Forward>Run.

That is all for now, in the next tutorial we will be programming the robot yourself and making it do what you want.