TRIK help — a guide for working with the free robot programming environment TRIK Studio. You can find the open-source TRIK Studio code in our repository at GitHub.

The help also describes how TRIK Studio interacts with supported platforms:

• TRIK controller.

• LEGO EV3.

• .

• .

Some antiviruses recognize TRIK Studio as a threat, which prevents TRIK Studio from working correctly.

Below are the instructions for solving similar antivirus problems:

• Avast antivirus blocks TRIK Studio. What to do?

Robot settings in TRIK Studio can be opened in two ways.

Way 1

Using the toolbar button:

Way 2

1. Choose in the main menu Settings → Preferences → Robots.

2. In the opened window open the tab "Robots".

Interface language can be changed in the TRIK Studio settings.

1. Choose Settings → Preferences ... in the main menu

2. Choose the "Behaviour" tab in the opened window.

3. Select necessary language. Now TRIK Studio supports English, Russian and French.

“<System language>” means that the TRIK Studio interface language will be determined by the language of the operating system.

4. Press "OK".

5. Restart TRIK Studio to apply the changes.

You can change the "Character movement" image in the TRIK Studio Junior settings.

1. Choose Settings → Preferences ... in the main menu

2. Choose the "Robots" tab in the opened window, click the "Browse" button next to the "2D Robot Image" field and select the desired image.

3. Press "OK".

TRIK Studio — free robot programming environment.

It allows you to solve problems using both and programming languages.

A distinctive feature of TRIK Studio is an . You don't need to have a constructor to learn how to program.

After starting TRIK Studio, you will see the start page that displays the of TRIK Studio, quick access to recent projects, and buttons for and .

To create a new project, click the "New project" button on the TRIK Studio home page.

Or select File → New project from the .

A window opens with a new program in the visual programming language:

A program in the TRIK Studio is represented as a sequence of the connected by the .

Each program corresponds to the , which may contain other . Diagrams are packaged in projects stored on the disk.

The main diagram is created when the . About adding and removing blocks to the , read the article:

The diagrams with subprograms are created automatically when you add the block "" to the scene. In this case, the subprogram is displayed by double-clicking on the "Subprogram" block on the scene.

Read more about subprograms in the article:

Three external programs are available in TRIK Studio:

1. .

2. .

3. .

TRIK Studio can be integrated with the external programming environment.

This will allow experienced TRIK Studio users to use all the features of professional text editors and their plugins:

• static analyzers,

• autoformatter,

The TRIK Studio interface depends on the selected mode. TRIK Studio Junior, like , has two modes:

1. It is intended for creating a robot control diagram and executing it in the generation mode.

2. It is intended for executing and debugging a program on a 2D model.

The TRIK Studio Junior interface depends on the selected mode and coincides with the TRIK Studio interface:

Exercise is a regular program in which you cannot modify some parts of a solution (blocks, sensors setup, world parameters). That is, any diagram can be saved as an exercise for students.

Exercises are created and loaded in TRIK Studio Junior in the same way as in TRIK Studio:

1. Turn on the controller.

2. Go to More... → Version & Update.

3. The "OS version" is the controller firmware version.

The TRIK Studio Junior version is displayed in the window title.

And also on the start page.

TRIK Studio can be integrated with the external programming environment .

This will allow experienced TRIK Studio users to use all the features of professional text editors and their plugins:

• static analyzers,

• auto formatters,

The TRIK controller has a Wi-Fi module that can work in two modes:

1. The access point mode, when the controller creates a new network, and we connect devices to it.

2. The Wi-Fi client mode, when we connect the controller to an existing network.

To select a mode in the controller menu, select the Network item.

Adding and removing blocks in TRIK Studio Junior is the same as in TRIK Studio:

For programming the TRIK controller with the visual language, TRIK Studio has specialized blocks, as well as sensor variables.

Read more about visual programming in the article

Editing element properties in TRIK Studio Junior is similar to editing element properties in TRIK Studio:

To declare variables and set certain values ​​for them, the “Variable Initialization” block is used.

For mathematical expressions — "Expression" block.

Also, mathematical expressions, including those that change the values ​​of variables, can be used almost everywhere where you can specify a value.

Blocks and their properties that do not allow the use of mathematical expressions are described in the section "Common blocks".

All variables in the program are global, i.e. their values ​​can be used in any block in the program.

TRIK Studio language

The language used inside the blocks is based on Lua 5.3 and largely follows its syntax. Nevertheless, there are significant differences, so a full description of the language used in TRIK Studio is given here.

Declaration of several variables in one block "":

The same using blocks:

Proportional controller for driving along the line using two light sensors for the TRIK platform:

An example of using to set the ports of the “Motors forward” block. An array is created with the name a, the port M3 is assigned to the zero element, the first is M1, then the contents of the first element of the array are changed to M4, then the resulting array is transferred to the “Ports” property of the “Motors forward” block:

The language uses spaces, tabs, and line breaks outside of string literals only as separators between tokens — they do not affect the interpretation of expressions.

The language has the following keywords:

• and

• false

• nil

• not

• or

• true​

And the following :

String literals are written in either single or double-quotes. For example,

Integers are written either in decimal, octal, or hexadecimal. Hexadecimal numbers begin with the prefix 0x, octal numbers begin with the prefix 0. For example,

• 3, 345 — decimal number

• 0xff, 0xBEBADA — hexadecimal number

• 07654321

Real numbers are written either in conventional or exponential form. For example,

Comments begin with -- and continue to the end of the line. For example,

See the article about the syntax of expressions in the blocks:

Avast gives a message about a blocked file

If Avast antivirus gives a message about blocking the file when you install or run TRIK Studio, you should add the file to exceptions in the antivirus settings, or select "MORE OPTIONS"→"Open anyway".

Or wait for some time for this message and continue your job:

Avast does not display a threat message (file moved to virus chest)

It is possible that Avast may delete the TRIK Studio executable file or simply not display a threatening message when launching TRIK Studio. In this case: 1. Open the main window of Avast. 2. In the "Menu", select the "My Statistics" item.

3. Then "Threats in Virus Vault (Open Virus Vault)".

4. Hover the mouse cursor over the locked file entry and a drop-down menu button "..." appears on the right. Click it and select "More Options".

5. Then select "Restore and add to exceptions".

6. After these actions TRIK Studio should start and work normally.

In TRIK Studio, there are two ways to edit property values ​​of blocks and links between them:

1. Using Property Editor panel.

2. Directly on the diagram.

Using Property Editor panel

When a block, link, or element is selected, all the properties of the current element are displayed on the Property Editor panel.

The property editor is a table. In the left column, the property name of the element is displayed, in the right - its value.

You can change the value of any property by clicking on the corresponding cell in the right column and entering the desired value.

For properties that allow only a specific set of values, for example, the “Port” property of the "" block, when you try to edit them, a drop-down menu will appear where the desired value is selected:

To edit properties directly on the diagram:

1. Hover over the value of the desired property.

2. Double-click the left mouse button to activate editing properties.

3. Enter the desired value.

4. Click on any place in the scene.

PuTTY — a client program for working with network protocols. You can connect to the TRIK controller using the SSH and Serial protocols.

Launching PuTTY from TRIK Studio

To run PuTTY, go to Tools → External tools → PuTTY.

Connection to the TRIK controller in PuTTY

1. Connect the controller to the computer via Wi-Fi.

2. In the TRIK Studio settings on the Robots tab, write down the IP address of the controller, which is displayed on the main screen of the controller.

3. Launch PuTTY from TRIK Studio by selecting Tools → External tools → PuTTY from the main menu.

4. In the window that opens, enter the root login. Leave the Password field blank.

A program in the TRIK Studio Junior is represented as a sequence of the blocks connected by the links.

Each program corresponds to the main diagram, which may contain other diagrams (subprograms). Diagrams are packaged in projects stored on the disk.

Main diagram

The main diagram is created when the project is created. About adding and removing blocks to the scene, read the article:

Subprograms

The diagrams with subprograms are created automatically when you add the block "Subprogram" to the scene. In this case, the subprogram is displayed by double-clicking on the "Subprogram" block on the scene.

Read more about subprograms in the article:

Unlike Lua, the TRIK Studio language is statically-typed, that is, the type of each expression and each variable must be known at compile time. Moreover, the language does not require (and does not even allow!) to explicitly write the types of variables. It uses automatic type inference for the use of variables.

For example, environment "understands" from the expression a = 1 that type of a is integer.

See the article about the syntax of expressions in blocks:

Function description

Allows you to use functions implemented by the user in other files. It is supposed to write your own libraries.

As a passed parameter you must specify the full system path to the file with the required functions or the name of the file. In the second case, the file for a connection must be in the same directory as the main file in which include is called.

Function call

// Functions must be declared as global variables
sum 

include("other_file.js");
print

Represents the of the TRIK controller.

1. Connect the controller to the computer with TRIK Studio installed in either of .

2. In the TRIK Studio settings, go to the "Robots" section and select the TRIK platform in the "Platforms" window.

3. Enter the IP address of the controller in the "TCP Settings" field.

Also, the controller IP address can be specified on the toolbar:

4. Click "OK".

Try to a program to the controller.

The TRIK controller allows you to build a robotic model without limiting yourself in the choice of "equipment" for it.

It allows you to connect digital and analog sensors, external devices via i2c and UART protocols, has two video ports and a USB connector.

There are 6 ports for servo motors and 4 ports for power motors.

This section contains information on how to connect sensors, motors, cameras to the TRIK controller - it describes the process of testing the connected devices, their configuration, and effective use together with the TRIK Studio programming environment.

Provides access to information about the battery or power supply unit.

Returns the current-voltage of the battery (or power supply) in volts.

Add blocks to the scene

You can add blocks to the scene in TRIK Studio in three ways:

1. Drag and drop the corresponding icons from the palette of elements onto the diagram.

2. Using mouse gesture.

3. When creating a new connection between blocks using a linker.

Left-click on the necessary block located in the panel. Without releasing the mouse button, move the block onto the scene.

Draw on the scene a special image of the block with the Right mouse button. The block appears in the center of the drawn image.

Gestures can be drawn with a few strokes. The gesture input ends if the strokes have not been drawn for some time (you can set the time in the settings window on the tab).

Available conditional images can be found in two ways:

1. In the "Mouse Gestures" window, which opens through the main menuTools → Mouse gestures.

2. In the tooltip that appears when you hover over a block in the Palette panel.

1. Start (a colored circle to the right of the block that appears after the block is selected) and release the left mouse button when the cursor is on an empty section of the diagram.

2. In the menu that appears, select "Create new element". A new menu with blocks will appear.

3. Select the block you need.

Deleting a block from the scene is possible in two ways:

1. Select the block with the left mouse button and then click the "Delete" button on the keyboard.

2. Right-click on the block and select "Delete" in the menu that appears.

1. Select the necessary blocks in one of the following ways.

1.1. Hold down the "Ctrl" button and right-click the necessary blocks.

1.2. Right-click on an area in the scene with the necessary blocks.

2. Delete the selected blocks in one of the following ways.

2.1. Press the “Delete” button on the keyboard.

2.2. Right-click on any selected block and select "Delete" from the menu that appears.

To replace the block on the scene:

1. Right-click on the block and select "Replace by..." in the menu that appears.

2. Select the block that you want to put instead of from the list.

The TRIK controller can be connected to other devices in two ways:

1. Using the TRIK controller as an access point (the controller creates a new network) and connects the devices to it.

2. Using the TRIK controller in Wi-Fi client mode and connect the devices and the controller itself to an existing network.

Method 1. The controller in the Wi-Fi access point mode

In this mode, the controller creates a new network, so we can connect devices to it.

1. Select Network → Wi-Fi hotspot in the menu. The controller will distribute Wi-Fi, and the network parameters will appear on the screen:

• Network name.

• Password.

• Controllers IP address.

2. When connecting a computer or smartphone to a Wi-Fi network, select the network and enter the password.

In this mode, we connect the controller and devices to an existing Wi-Fi network.

To do this, in the controller's , we need to enter the name and password of the network to which we will connect the controller.

1. To launch the web interface, connect your computer or smartphone to the controller as an access point.

2. In the address bar of the browser, enter the IP address of the controller. The web interface will open.

3. In the "Wi-Fi client" field, enter the name and password of the network to which you want to connect the controller. Click the Save button.

4. Switch the controller to Wi-Fi client mode.

5. If the connection is successful, the controller's IP address will be displayed at the top of the screen next to the icon , and the network name will be highlighted in the list with the icon .

Creating a text program

Read the article about creating a new text program and generating a diagram to code:

Programming in Python and JavaScript

The functionality of the runtime environment is accessed through predefined objects and functions.

Objects

The camera in color sensor mode.

Turns the camera on and initializes it in color sensor mode.

The boolean parameter defines whether to display the image from the camera:

• true — output,

• false — do not output

Returns an array with the coordinates of the dominant color in the RGB color scale in the specified area of the frame.

The frame is divided into squares by a grid, by default 3 by 3, the dimensionality of the grid can be set in model-config.xml on the robot. Squares are indexed from 1. That is, (1, 1) is the upper-left edge of the frame, (2, 2) is its center.

The return value is an array of three elements from 0 to 255, indexed from 0. The zero element contains the intensity of red (0 - none at all, 255 - very much), the first - the intensity of green, the second - the intensity of blue. For example, (0, 0, 0) is black, (255, 255, 255) is white, (255, 0, 0) is red.

As a parameter, it is necessary to specify the indices of the square x and y.

Turns off the camera and stops the sensor.

Represents a sensor (analog or digital) connected to ports A1, ..., A6, D1, D2.

Returns the current reading of the sensor (digital or analog) connected to this port. The present value is returned, depending on the port configuration, which is described in the file model-config.xml in the trik folder on the robot.

For example, the IR distance sensor returns a value in centimeters.

Returns the current raw reading of the sensor (digital or analog) connected to this port. The range of values depends on the specific sensor and does not take into account the configuration of the robot (the physical readings of the sensor are returned, e.g. the delay of the received ultrasonic signal).

The table below shows the default shortcuts. You can change the keyboard shortcut for actions in the .

This article discusses the possibility of simultaneous uploading of programs on a group of robots using an external text editor VSCode. The article is a continuation of the next material

Download the file for Windows and place it in the folder where TRIK Studio is installed.

The first time the program is launched, confirmation from the user is required to establish a connection with the robot.

To allow the connection, enter Y or Yes at the command line.

1. Open the folder with the files you want to send in VSCode using File → Open Folder

Provides control of the robot motor (power or servo motor) connected to ports M1, ..., M4, S1, ..., S6.

Provides management of parallel threads.

This article discusses setting up and using the Sublime Text external programming environment to call programs in the TRIK Studio .

This will allow experienced TRIK Studio users to use all the features of professional text editors and their plugins: static analyzers, auto formatters, color themes.

It also describes how to automatically run the program on several fields, which can be useful for participants in competitions with automated verification systems.

It is assumed that the user is writing a program in an external editor and would like to run this program on one or more fields. Fields can be presented both in the .xml format (more details in the article ""), and in the.qrs format.

Provides control of the LED on the body of the robot.

This article deals with setting up and using the external programming environment PyCharm to call programs in the 2D model of TRIK Studio.

This will allow experienced TRIK Studio users to use all the features of professional text editors and their plugins: static analyzers, auto formatters, color themes.

It also tells how to automatically run the program on several fields, which can be useful for participants of competitions with automated checking systems.

Preparation

It is assumed that the user is writing a program in an external editor and would like to run this program on one or more fields. Fields can be presented both in the .xml format (more details in the article "2D model tuning"), and in the.qrs format.

1. Download file for Windows or for Linux and place it in the folder where TRIK Studio is installed.

2. Place the fields on which you want to test the program in a separate folder. If the fields are in .xml format, create an empty default.qrs project in this folder.

1. Open the source code folder in PyCharm with File → Open.

2. ChooseFile → Settings or press the key combination «Ctrl+Alt+S».

3. ChooseTools → External tools and click on the «+».

4. In the Name field, enter the desired name of the tool, for example, «run_2d_model». In the Program field, type your path to the file run_2d_model.cmd. In the Arguments type the parameters $FileDir$ and $FileName$ or chooseInsert Macros and select the desired parameters from the list. In the Working Directory type$FileDir$ or chooseInsert Macros and select the desired parameter. Click the OK

5. To run the code, select Tools→ External tools and run_2d_model (or its name, chosen earlier).

6. To add "hotkeys" select File → Settings or press the key combination «Ctrl+Alt+S». In the menu that appears, select the tab Keymap and go to the created external tool. Click on run_2d_model right mouse button, select Add Keyboard Shortcut.

7. In the window that opens, enter the desired key combination to call the Toolbox and click «ОК».

8. Now you just have to press the selected combination (in this case Shift+B, but it is possible to choose any other) to run the code.

Represents power motor encoders connected to ports E1, E2, E3, E4.

Returns the current encoder reading in degrees on the specified port.

As a parameter, you must specify the port.

Resets the current encoder reading to 0.

As a parameter, you must specify the port.

Returns the current encoder reading in "ticks" on the specified port.

Camera in object sensor mode. Captures a contrasting object in the center of the frame and returns its coordinates and size in the frame.

Detects the dominant color in the center of the frame and remembers it as the color of the object. After that, the "" method starts to return data for the object.

Switches the camcorder on and initializes it in object sensor mode. The boolean parameter determines whether to display the image from the camera (true — display).

The boolean parameter defines whether to display the image from the camera:

• true — output,

• false — don't output.

Returns an array that contains the following data in its cells:

• In the zero cell, the X-axis coordinate of the object center relative to the center of the frame (-100 to 100, -100 is the center of the object on the edge of the frame on the left);

• The Y-coordinate of the object's center relative to the frame center (from -100 to 100, -100 is the center of the object on the frame edge at the top);

• The second cell is the relative size of the object, a number from 0 to 100 (100 - the object occupies almost the entire frame, 0 - the object is not on the frame).

Turns off the camera and stops the sensor.

Camera in line sensor mode.

Detects the dominant color in the vertical bar in the center of the frame and remembers it as a line color. Then the "" method starts returning data for that line.

Turns the camera on and initializes it inline sensor mode. The boolean parameter determines whether to display the image from the camera (true - display).

The boolean parameter defines whether to display the image from the camera:

• true — output,

• false — don't output.

Returns an array with the following data in its cells:

• the zero cell is the X coordinate of the line center relative to the center of the frame (from -100 to 100, -100 is the center of the line on the edge of the frame on the left);

• in the first cell - the probability of crossing (the number from 0 to 100, showing how many points of the line color are in the horizontal stripe in the frame center);

• the second cell - the relative size of the line, a number from 0 to 100 (100 - the line occupies almost the whole frame, 0 - the line is absent in the frame).

Turns off the video camera and stops the sensor.

Any program in TRIK Studio can be saved as a subprogram and used in another program.

Subprograms can be saved to a local collection or exported to a separate file for transfer to other computers.

To work with the collection of subprograms, use the menu item Tools → Subprograms:

1. Export to file.

2. .

3. .

4. .

5. .

To export subprograms from an open project to a separate qrs file, select Tools → Subprograms → Export to file in the main menu.

All subprograms from the current project will be exported to this file.

To load previously-stored subprograms, select Tools → Subprograms → Import from file in the main menu.

To save routines from the current project, select Tools → Routines → Save to Collection from the main menu.

Then select the subprograms you want to save and click OK.

To load subprograms from the collection, select Tools → Subprograms → Download from the collection from the main menu.

Then select the subprograms that you want to import into the current project, and click OK.

To delete all subprograms saved in the collection, select Tools → Subprograms → Clear collection in the main menu.

The main menu of TRIK Studio contains a set of basic operations and environment settings:

It implements communication between robots in the network by means of the mailbox mechanism.

Used to operate the buttons on the robot's remote control.

Function description

The function returns a one-dimensional array of bytes containing the pixels of an rgb32-formatted image taken from the camera (image size 160x120). This function can be used to solve marker recognition problems.

Function call

var pic = getPhoto();

pic = getPhoto();

Work example

Let's look at an example of converting a frame taken with a camera to grayscale and black-and-white color formats.

Take a picture and display the result with the show function.

// take a frame in rgb32 format
var pic = getPhoto

# take a frame in rgb32 format
pic = getPhoto();
brick.display().show(pic, total_height, total_width, "rgb32");
script.wait(2000);

Rwsult:

Implementing the grayscale function

Converts the image to black and white and outputs it to the display:

Result:

Translates the image to black and white and outputs it to the display:

Result:

1. .

2. .

3. .

Represents of the TRIK controller. At rest, the average value of the gyroscope output is not zero and is called a bias or bias error.

The parameter is determined by many factors and can vary, for example, depending on the ambient temperature.

In order for the gyroscope to work properly it is necessary to subtract the zero offset from the incoming values. This can be calculated using the "" method.

Since calibration takes a long time, if you run the model frequently, you can do it once, then store the value in a variable with "", and call "" instead of calibration when you run the program.

Serves to work with the programmable control panel "".