New Robot Control System!

[tjcasser]

Originally Posted by ThomasP

They have a .NET Compact Framework, Java Micro Edition, etc... with more processing power and memory, the new RC could easily run one of the newer languages just as fast as the current RC runs C and then it will only get faster from there.

Just let me recap something I mentioned earlier in this thread, IIRC.

Having played with robots programed in Java last week, I can tell you that Java ME does work rather well when it comes to developing software for small, power constrained devices. (You actually use the same interfaces that you use for writing programs that run on a Java-enabled cellphone.) .Net CF has a slightly larger footprint, but it too likely could handle the processors that I imagine FIRST is looking at using in the post-2008 era.

When they say 'support for multiple languages', that smacks to me of a device that's capable of running an operating system in some fashion, rather than just a simple processor... so it's back to the whole wait-and-see...

[mathking]

Originally Posted by tjcasser

When they say 'support for multiple languages', that smacks to me of a device that's capable of running an operating system in some fashion, rather than just a simple processor... so it's back to the whole wait-and-see...

I have been talking with some of our other mentors about this. I think that some sort of OS is the most likely alternative. The other possibility we see is a development environment which allows code from different languages to be compiled to processor readable object code.

I will also second the notion that Java has a number of features that do lend themselves to robot programming. In particular Java handles events and exceptions well. Just as a simple example, I made some code for the InteliBrain robot from Ridgesoft that uses the CMU cam and can find the FRC game light and move the robot to within 5 feet of it very quickly. If the Java code is used with an IDE that compiles the code efficiently, it will not be anything like Java byte codes. Something like xCode perhaps.