Building an autonomous vehicle by integrating lego mindstorms and a web cam

Abstract

There are many possible ways to integrate Lego Mindstorms robots into the standard computer science curriculum. This paper presents a way to use these robots to teach image processing or vision by building an autonomous vehicle. The vehicle uses an off-the-shelf web cam for all of its navigation. Integration of the camera, robot, and controlling computer is discussed, as are the image processing units used, the structure of a state machine controlling them, and the cross-cutting concern of reducing both input and output noise throughout all aspects of the project.