Work-in-Progress: Development of a LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Simulation for Programming in C

Embedded Systems are finding their way in more and more areas of our daily life. Therefore, the ability to program such systems will be more and more important for engineering topics. However, this is only one good reason why students in mechatronics Bachelor Degree Program learn a programming language at our University of Applied Sciences. This programming language is C. Students learned this programming language only by programming local console applications for a windows computer. Since 2016, the Students learn it not only by programming these applications but also by programming a LEGO Mindstorms EV3 robot. Therefore, they are using a toolchain that was also developed at our University. This increases the student’s interest and fun [1] in programming, but it has also a big drawback. The LEGO Mindstorms EV3 can only be used in the laboratory so there is no possibility for the students to practice programming them at home. To provide a solution for this, a developing process for a LEGO Mindstorms EV3 simulation for programming in C is in progress.