Software Development Tools for Mindstorms

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Software Development Tools for Mindstorms

• Geoffrey T Newport
• Mentor Dennis Gibson
• Faculty Eric Luczaj
• November 7, 2009

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Outline

• Description of Project
• Motivation
• Background
• Good Development Tool Components
• Main Results
• Demonstration of G Control Center
• Conclusion
• Extensions to the Project

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Description of Project

• Create Lego Mindstorm development tools
• Handle saving and opening files
• Provide rapid development tools
• Perform commands on the RCX brick

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The RCX 2.0

• Robot Brain
• Hitachi Processor
• 32k memory
• 3 input ports
• 3 output ports
• Programmable
• NQC
• Lejos

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Motivation

• Lego
• Lejos
• New
• Weak Tools
• Not Integrated

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leJOS

• Lego Java Operating System
• Replacement Firmware
• Interprets Java commands

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Background

• Lego Mindstorms Invention System
• building materials and hardware
• build and program creations
• Mindstorms Fan base
• Building ideas
• Development tools
• Scripting languages

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Good Development Tool Components

• User Friendly
• Easy to use
• Easy to understand
• Rapid application development (RAD)
• programming technique that allows quick
  development of software applications
• include visual tools for development
• generate software frameworks or "wizards"

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Main Results

• Program Creation
• Automatic Firmware Download
• File Handling (opening and saving)
• Compiles and downloads to the RCX
• Automatic code generation
• Java Familiar

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G Control Center
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Conclusion

• Program Creation
• Automatic Firmware Download
• File Handling (opening and saving)
• Compiles and downloads to the RCX
• Automatic code generation
• Components of Good Development Tools

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Extensions

• Fix interface bugs
• Provide syntax checking
• More auto-code generation
• Application Programmers Interface (API)
• Other features

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Thanks to

• Mentor Dennis Gibson
• Faculty Eric Luczaj
• Mike Mahon
• Marsha Smith
• Chris Desmond

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Questions?