DancingSimAt JavaOne 2001 Sun held a Real Time Java programming competition. The goal was to program two robots built from the Lego Mindstorm robotics kit. The robots had to dance to music. The actual goal of the competition was to show the two robots performing complex movements to music without the benefit of communication. With both robots starting at the same time the clocks which is set to a 10ms interrupt can not drift because of Java (Garbage Collection).
Instead of using the RCX for motor/sensor control the folks at Systronix put together JStamp http://www.jstamp.com. JStamp uses a new embedded java chipset from aJile http://www.ajile.com. The JStamp is similar to BASIC stamp from Parallex. Everything you need on a small module running J2ME CLDC with support for real-time Java.
To be successful on any project it helps to have good tools. Access to the robots was limited, not to mention the folks at Sun and aJile were still chasing a few bugs. First prize for the competition was a Sony PCR-9 digital video camera. The prestige of winning the competition is not a bad prize either. I didn't have a lot of time to work on the contest during the show because I was working in a booth. I decided to write a simulator that allowed me to choreograph the robots in a simulator afterhours. Having written raceGraph, a race simulator, for the Indy 500 many years ago I was able to put together, fairly quickly, a dancing robot simulator. With the help of Java media frameworks I even added the ability to play midi files during the simulation that were used in the competition. Sun posted the simulator in the hackers lounge and many of the contestants ended up using it. The tool came in handy for testing.
I can't say that the choreography I put together was any better then the rest of the competition but Sun was nice enough to give me extra credit and first prize in the competition. To run the simulator pick the link from below.
DancingSim
With Java media frameworks installed to allow playing of music. Click here
Without Java Media Frameworks installed Click here
If you have any problems, suggestions or questions please send me an email at scooter@gdsolutions.com
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