Lego Mindstorm with Linux Mini-HOWTO

Luis Villa

Revision History
Revision 1.1October 29th, 2000

The Lego Group's Mindstorm Robotics Invention System (RIS) is probably the best reasonably cheap robotics kit available. However, the standard software is (unsurprisingly) MS Windows dependent. Don't despair- there are several options that allow Linux users to use their Mindstorms from within Linux. This Mini-HOWTO is intended to serve as a very brief introduction to the options available, and as a gathering point for more information.


Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1. Acknowledgements
1.2. Disclaimer
1.3. Copyright
2. The Mindstorms Architecture
2.1. The Basic Hardware
2.2. Standard RCX Programming
2.3. Where the Linux Tools Fit In
2.4. Hardware Requirements for the Linux Host
2.5. The CyberMaster and Scout
2.6. Mindstorms Vision Command
2.7. Important Note about the MS Windows CD
3. LegOS
3.1. Homepage
3.2. Author
3.3. Type
3.4. Language
3.5. Platforms
3.6. Description
4. Lego::RCX.pm
4.1. Homepage
4.2. Author
4.3. Type
4.4. Language
4.5. Platforms
4.6. Description
5. Not Quite C (NQC)
5.1. Homepage
5.2. Author
5.3. Type
5.4. Language
5.5. Platforms
5.6. Description
6. pbForth
6.1. Homepage
6.2. Author
6.3. Type
6.4. Language
6.5. Platforms
6.6. Description
7. TinyVM and leJOS
7.1. Homepages
7.2. Author
7.3. Type
7.4. Language
7.5. Platforms
7.6. Description
8. Remote Java APIs
8.1. Homepages
8.2. Type
8.3. Language
8.4. Platforms
8.5. Description
9. TCL RCX
9.1. Homepage
9.2. Authors
9.3. Type
9.4. Language
9.5. Platforms
9.6. Description
10. Pylnp
10.1. Homepage
10.2. Author
10.3. Type
10.4. Language
10.5. Platforms
10.6. Description
11. Other Linux Tools
11.1. LeoCAD
11.2. POVRAY
12. Other sources of information
12.1. LUGNET
12.2. The Official Mindstorms Site
12.3. The Hardware Sites
12.4. Historic Lego Bots and Construction Guide