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Using Android to control Lego Mindstorms

Posted by Enea Android Team on Wed, Feb 03, 2010 @ 08:12 AM
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This is a short post on the more entertaining side of Android showing a project that the Enea team in Linköping, Sweden, prepared for an expo. It is a one minute video from the demonstration.

It is two LEGO Mindstorms robots controlled by one HTC Hero Android phone. The Hero is running an Android application written by Enea Linköping that send motor commands to the LEGO brick. LEGO has been kind enough to put a Bluetooth chip in the Mindstorms NXT controller. By using the built in demonstrational Bluetooth commands the NXT brick provides there is no need for an application to be downloaded into the NXT brick.
There was however one obstacle in the limited Bluetooth support in Android OS version 1.5 (not supporting the Bluetooth serial port profile, SPP). Instead we used the wifi capabilities on the phone to send information to an Ubuntu Linux Laptop with a TCP/IP to Bluetooth tunnel (just a raw tunnel, no logic or programming). HTC has been rumored to be releasing Android OS version 2.1 (with Bluetooth) later in february and we hope to be able to put forth a new version that skip the WiFi laptop step.

Video below:

 
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Comments

Is that an app in the market? or is there one similar to it?? I am guessing not, but I would love this app to be able to control over my VexPro stuff!!! Awesome!!!
Posted @ Monday, February 08, 2010 11:36 AM by Josh
Hello, I am a Ubuntu Linux user and have a Lego Mindstorm and would love to test out this app on my Nexus One which I have ordered. Please could you email me if interested for a tester.
Posted @ Monday, February 08, 2010 1:01 PM by Matthew Kenny
I got a NXT and a NXT V2.0 and a HTC hero. I wanna test your app mate !!!
Posted @ Monday, February 08, 2010 1:27 PM by kazuyette
Can I do the same with iPhone?
Posted @ Tuesday, February 09, 2010 4:59 PM by macictsue
I just released an open source code that controls the NXT via Android Bluetooth (without using a laptop). You can find more info here: <a>http://tom.tomoueb.com/blog/201002092144-nxosremote.html
Posted @ Wednesday, February 10, 2010 3:26 AM by tguillem
Awesome! I'm working on a similar project, but using Arduino as development platform, and focused on computer vision research. This is so cool! Will you release the code for the Android apk?
Posted @ Thursday, February 11, 2010 8:21 AM by Saquito
Hi ! 
I have a lego mindstorms nxt and an htc magic , is it possible to run this app on my phone ?  
How can I get it ?
Posted @ Thursday, February 11, 2010 9:54 AM by richardwiner
The appwas created specifically for this expo and is not ready for general usage, which means there is no binary available. Sorry for that. 
 
However, if anyone is interested in (unsupported) source code it is (for now) available at http://code.google.com/p/bishopsarm/ 
 
It does contain a lot of hardcoded stuff like IP adresses etc, but might still be useful for someone. Note that you will need a PC with a TCP/Bluetooth RFCOMM redirector to run it. 
Posted @ Monday, February 15, 2010 9:03 AM by Johan Östensson (Enea)
I'll check it out! Thanks a lot! 
Posted @ Friday, February 19, 2010 11:47 AM by saquito
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