Lego Mindstorms NXT Segway

Posted by Rich | Filed under Lego, Rollers

The other night I was researching building a balancing Segway like robot with the Lego Mindstorms NXT kit. I wanted a robot that could balance on two wheels and could move forward and backward. I also wanted the robot to recover when “pushed”.

I was familiar with Steve Hassenplug’s Legway built on the Lego RCX platform, but I wanted to tackle the challenge with the NXT. Luckily, I found Philo Hurbain’s NXTWay. I was intrigued enough to build a copy and try out the programming.

It is quite hard to get the balance right and in the end I created a very aggressive robot that I can push around and it will mostly right itself. Here is the video of the final creation.



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Permalink | January 3rd, 2007

16 Responses to “Lego Mindstorms NXT Segway”

  1. Marek Says:
    January 14th, 2007 at 9:08 am

    Hi Rich,

    very impressive NXTWay. Me and my son, we want to give it a shot as well and I was wondering if you could share with us your NXT-G code so we get some ideas how the balancing portion needs to work.

    Thanks

    Marek

  2. Dev Says:
    January 19th, 2007 at 9:55 am

    Nice!!! :)

  3. Rich Says:
    January 19th, 2007 at 12:47 pm

    I pretty much modified the code from Philo’s website listed above. Modify the “scale” parameter to get some of those effects.

  4. swissboy Says:
    February 4th, 2007 at 4:07 am

    hi,
    your bot is very nice. i have some problem with the program from Philo. could you give me the programm for the nxt??
    thanks

    and sorry for my bad english, but i speak normaly german

  5. Pete Says:
    February 4th, 2007 at 7:05 pm

    Very cool what you did! I played around with the scale, but wasn’ able to do anything you did. Could you post your scale and PID values(KD, KI, KD) and potentially other params you edited?
    Also: were you able to place counterweights so that your NXTway balance standing fully upright?
    Any hints would be great - thanks!!!

  6. joe Says:
    February 5th, 2007 at 7:08 am

    i think all you did ws to sewt the light sensor value when it was at x it was vertical, when it was lesss it went forward to correct it self, when greater it went backwards to correct its self. and by adding a second sensor would prob make it easyer to backwards. but if you did programing a certian way just add a wheely bar.

  7. Rich Says:
    March 15th, 2007 at 11:34 pm

    I could only get it to balance, but not move or move and not balance. I need a second light sensor so I can rebuild it and try for both movement and balance without any non-lego sensors.

  8. Steve Says:
    March 20th, 2007 at 4:59 pm

    Hi Rich,
    your NXT Segway is really a piece! Could you please get in touch with me?

  9. Jeremy Says:
    March 21st, 2007 at 11:42 pm

    Hey Rich,

    I was wondering if you programed this using the Mindstorms software or programs listed on Philo’s website. I am trying to program it using the Mindstorms software and I can’t get it to work.

    Thanks.

  10. Rich Says:
    March 23rd, 2007 at 3:50 pm

    I used the program from philo’s website and modified the variables.

  11. brett stevens Says:
    May 19th, 2007 at 3:44 pm

    I have been trying to build this NXTway but I cannot get it to stand straight no matter how I vary the coefficients! Nor beable to move and stay balanced. Does anyone have some tips on how to go about “tuning” KP, KD, KI. Should the scaling parameters for err

  12. Rich Says:
    May 22nd, 2007 at 9:50 pm

    It has been a while since I played with this one, but try to slowly change the variables. Start with one variable at a time. It took forever for mine to balance and move properly. Even after all that work it was still quite un-reliable.

  13. nils Says:
    June 26th, 2007 at 6:21 am

    Hello I would have there times ne question: I try for 5 weeks already mean Segway robot to programieren and to calibrate ultrasonic sensor (17-9) cm or photosensor (382-525) and I get it not, could you me perhaps times help or me one tap give. Mfg Nils would make me happy about an answer

  14. Luiz Says:
    July 10th, 2007 at 2:21 pm

    Congratulations!! you robots are so cool!!
    do you just have a NXT kit??

  15. Rich Says:
    July 12th, 2007 at 8:50 am

    I have a few NXT kits and lots of other technic kits used for parts.

  16. jorge - españa Says:
    May 29th, 2009 at 7:58 am

    Please. i need contact with the code source of this video. who is the creator.contact with me: gsivillerp@hotmail.com or sistemas_wl@hotmail.com.
    this is my project final of the course system embebed and i cant stand up my robot lego nxt. please urgent contact with me.

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