Let's have Linux Robots Next Year!

[suneel112]

I bet this will sound stupid, but I really want to allow the option of programming the robot in Java.
Yes, I know it is not very useful, but that is the language of choice for the infinitely stupid CollegeBoard, and, since I was in AP Computer Science, the only language I learned.
I got to be quite good at it, and wrote a few programs to calculate motor torque and gear ratios for a telescoping arm with a gas spring.
Unfortunately, that skill was of no use to the robot, which only had one programmer this year.
I don't really see what's so bad with Java. Sun brags and says that the latest NASA robots on Mars are programmed with Java. FIRST should also use small, retro computers (instead of the RC) or an updated RC, with the equivalent of 500 - 600 MHz (32 bit, of course), 64 MB Ram, and 256 - 512 MB of storage. That will allow much more complicated autonomous programs (after two regionals, I still haven't seen a robot grab a vision tetra and place it on a goal) and much more accurate autonomous navigation.

My 2c.