Program NXT to write/draw in MATLAB

Hi guys. I was wondering if anyone knew how to program the NXT to write/draw. I have programmed the NXT motors to drive and the writing arm to go up and down. But I have no idea how to program it to write a word or to make it draw vectorized images. I would really appreciate some help.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

[Jon Boerner]

This is a pretty open-ended question that does not have a straightforward answer. The short answer is that you will probably want to create some sort of path planning algorithm that converts the words/images into a set of waypoints. Then you will want to create a controller for that robot that hits all of those waypoints. An example controller might be something like:

1. Turn so you are facing the next waypoint
2. Drive straight the correct distance to the waypoint
3. Go back to (1.) and repeat until all waypoints are reached

The tricky part then is accounting for where the marker or pen is on the robot. If it is at the center of rotation, that would make things easier, otherwise you would have to account for it moving while rotating.

[Jon Boerner]

You might also want to look at this:

http://www.mathworks.com/help/supportpkg/legomindstormsnxt/index.html