Mindboards

pbenco wrote:...P.S the Tools--->IMAGE EDITOR will not be helpfull in your case, With the image editor you can upload a picture to the NXT Brick and it will appear on the screen. That's all.

Actually, IIRC, you just make .ric files with it. You can upload them to the NXT and display them if you want, but you can also use them in a program.

There are alternatives to the NXT-G .ric file creator though. There are several free stand-alone programs that are much better.

jinjosh wrote:i'll have to program it on another program language software or i can do this on the offcial nxt software?

that completely depends on your robot. If you have some kind of printer (like this you can spin one motor to go "up" and "down" and the other to go left or right, or run them at the same time to make a curve. You can definitely do that using the official programming software - the one in the video uses NXT-G, too. But it'd be a lot more difficult if you had a more arm-like robot, like in danny's video (the one you posted at the beginning), because they move in circles, and not in straight lines like the printer.

jinjosh wrote:pbenco, thanks a lot. got it.
but i have another question - if i want that the robot will write, no to draw, it's the same problem, right? i'll have to program it on another program language software or i can do this on the offcial nxt software?

If you want it to draw text, you could use NXT-G (I would use NXC though). You shouldn't need to do any computer programming; it should all run on the NXT. If you want it to print a .txt file, you can upload the file to the NXT, and have the program read it.

However, 1 week would really be pushing it if I were doing something like this, even with having already learned NXC fairly well.

While Daniele's project might indeed be too complex for you, given your previous experience and the time window you have, you could still use the basic idea and start with simpler geometric shapes.

The "Image Processing Toolbox" for MATLAB is a great start, and I think Daniele made use of it. It can be used for rapid prototyping, and depending on how quick you can pick up new things, it might indeed be possible to get results very quickly. See here for tutorials, documentation, and so on http://www.mathworks.com/products/image/

The robot construction Daniele chose is complex & advanced, too, when you want to model it (multiple coordinate transformations). Again, you can start "smaller", try something like a "car wash machine". We reguralily have students who succeed with this design. Here are some random pictures to illustrate what I mean:






If you find the image processing toolbox easy to use (I know I do), then you can use the free RWTH - Mindstorms NXT Toolbox to control your robot (preferrably via USB cable): http://www.mindstorms.rwth-aachen.de