How to Program Mindstorm Robots

Assemble your Lego Mindstorms robot. This is probably the most difficult step, but if you're reading this, you've already completed the assembly and you're working on the program.

Download the LabVIEW Toolkit for Lego Mindstorms (the link is in Resources below). Before you're allowed to download the program, you have to fill out a form that contains your log-in name and password and other personal information. You'll have to specify which operating system your computer has and you will be guided to the download of a compatible LabVIEW Toolkit.

Install the LabVIEW Toolkit on your computer and open it. The LabVIEW Toolkit comes with four simple program instructions to get you started, however, you can download more programs that work for your specific robot at the Lego Mindstorms website.

Using the two-step Spike "Crawl" program as a reference, you'll click on the "Move" block (the first block on the left pane of the screen) and drag it to the "Start" position in the work area (right pane).

Set the duration to five seconds on the bottom panel and click on the "Download and Run" button on the controller in the bottom-right portion of the work area. This will allow you to download the program to a USB flash drive or transfer the program via USB cable.

Insert the flash drive or USB cable into the USB port on the Mindstorms robot so the program can be installed.

Turn on the robot and watch it move.