ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

Today we have a guest blog post by JAsVAp who was active in the area of EV3 programming with C: "Ever wanted to have a simple way for programming your Lego EV3 in it's native programming language ANSI C? Well now it is possible! I have made an IDE application for it. Your code will be running super fast as it is compiled to run directly on your CPU and not for an intermediat virtual machine!!! And the best thing I want to share it with everybody for FREE. You can download it at my temporary website or on my onedrive . A first version of documentation is included in the program it self ( README.txt ), but it may not be sufficient enough for everbody. When I find some more time I will create some more example project. Some important features: No need for a firmware upgrade!!! So an EV3 out of the box will do.  Your program can be executed from original Lego EV3 menu on your device! You can setup a Telnet connection ( wifi connection - linux remote terminal ) an...

One and a half year after the last release, since mid of May a new version of leJOS NXJ  is out, the Java platform for LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT. leJOS NXJ is one of the most complete development and runtime environments for advanced NXT robotic programs out there and is used not only by many NXT aficionados but also by a lot of schools and universities for teaching robotics and programming. In case you are into Object-Orientated Programming also for your NXT, it might be the platform of choice for you. The new release includes "preliminary Android OS support, a new icon-based menu system, updating the Java language to support such things as generics, and nanosecond support [..,] many new classes to support new sensors, as well as reworking the navigation API to accomodate different robot types, object detection, and path finding." Have a look at the web site . leJOS NXJ is Open Source and can be downloaded and used for free. Addendum: There's also a new version 0.9.0 o...

Few NXT resources are available in French language... So I feel it's important to highlight the tremendous work of Roboleo who published two complete - and free - PDF books about NXT-G 1.1 and 2.0. These books are available from his website here: http://web.mac.com/roboleo/Roboleo/Accueil.html If you are a French speaking NXTStep reader, please join me in congratulating RoboLeo for these amazing publications by commenting this post! Merci RoboLeo :D I: /. 7.

At beginning of September, the Open Source project leJOS has released version 0.85 of leJOS NXJ , the Java platform for the NXT. 0.85 is meant as a intermediary release on the road to the first major version 1.0; nevertheless, it features a lot of enhancements, amongst others support for the new LEGO color sensor in the NXT 2.0 set better support and documentation for MAC OS X, including the Fantom USB driver a plug-in for the Netbeans IDE improved JVM speed support for the instanceof keyword detection of rechargeable batteries and improved battery indicator platform independent lejos.robotics packages In addition, there are some previews included to upcoming technologies, such as new navigation proposal (work in progress) that is platform independent, supports more vehicles, has better localization support, and new concepts of pose controllers and path finders preliminary support for probabilistic robotics, including general purpose KalmanFilter class using matrix algebra reworkin...

John Hansen, the author and maintainer of NXC , the C-style programming language for the NXT, has now published a set of tools for the NXC development on Mac OSX. NeXT Tools is "a universal binary Mac OS X application which provides many of the tool windows that are part of the Bricx Command Center IDE. Included are: Direct controller, Diagnostics, Watch, Piano, Joystick, Remote, NeXT Explorer, NeXT Screen, Messages, Memory Map, Clear Memory, MIDI Conversion, Wav->RSO, Find Brick, Turn off brick, Close communication, and Firmware download", as John states on the site from which the tools can be downloaded for free. Nice stuff for Apple users!

geekdad has published a new article on the NXT where the author announces his plans to "explore its capabilities" by trying out some of the programming options out there for it. Though I do not understand why Mr. Olsen dismisses Java-based options from the start (he gives no reason for it), while I am considering for instance leJOS NXJ as one of the best, mature, structured and easy-to-use programming platforms for the NXT out there and am using it regularly, the article nevertheless provides a nice overview. I'm curious to hear about geekdad's further experiences with some of the options listed there.

A new release of leJOS NXJ , the Java platform for the NXT, is out! The new version 0.8 contains plenty of new features, bug fixes and improvements, including Controlling the NXT from the computer  Faster bootup times Support for RS485 Support for RFID, RCX Rotation Sensor, and EOPD sensors Support for Java 1.6 classes  Support for Generics, Enum classes and foreach loops Support for subsumption architectures NXJControl utility for quick control of motors and sensors Wider support in the lejos.navigation packages javax.microedition.location for Bluetooth GPS Lots of sample code in the 'samples' directory Alongside with that, a new associated version of the Eclipse plug-in for leJOS NXJ is available.

Version 0.7 of leJOS NXJ is out! leJOS NXJ is a full-blown mature Open Source Java platform for the NXT with a Java Virtual Machine that runs directly on the brick. The new release "includes a Windows installer to make installation a breeze for new users (the compressed-file distribution is also still available). New features include better USB support, no more using a paper clip to upload firmware, faster garbage collection, three new GUI tools, a brand new Tutorial , support for many new sensors, bug fixes and much more." There's also preliminary support for mobile phone remote control and Monte Carlo Localization. It's decidedly worthwhile to have a look!

NXT++ is a fairly new programming language for the NXT. Its web site and download page are here and its tutorials are here .

leJOS OSEK , a C/C++ based Open Source programming and runtime platform for the NXT, has released version 2 now. From the project's web site: "LEJOS OSEK is an open source firmware for LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT. LEJOS OSEK consists of I/O driver part of leJOS NXJ platform C/Assembly source code, TOPPERS OSEK Real-Time Operating System source code[...] and glue code to make them work together. LEJOS OSEK can provide: ANSI C/C++ programming environment[...] leJOS NXJ I/O driver based C API for NXT Sensors, Motor, and other devices leJOS NXJ I/O driver based C++ API for NXT Sensors and Motor (includes many third party sensors) (TOPPERS) OSEK provided real-time multi tasking features proven in automotive industry fast execution and less memory consumption[...] NXT BIOS enables LEJOS OSEK application uploaded into Flash (max. 224Kbytes) or SRAM (max. 64Kbytes) Many examples (include NXTway-GS and NXT GT...)" If you are into C or C++, you might want to give this interesting pro...

Chris Anderson, the inventor of the UAV NXT drone , has posted an entr y to the GeekDad blog where he strongly promotes RobotC and drops some thoughts regarding a " best " and a " real " programming language for the NXT. While I consider RobotC indeed a tool quite well adapted to NXT programmers' needs, I rather disagree with some arguments of his (and left an according comment). What do you think about his opinions on that subject? It's an interesting discussion that has been led many times already in the past (and will no doubt go on in the future) with a lot of aspects involved. Leave comments there !

Here are the totals from the Programming Languages Poll . NOTE: If someone mentioned MS Robotics Studio and C#, then this counted in both the Robotics Studio and C# counts. Some people listed multiple languages, so these got counted each time too. The winner (by far) is NXT-G. I think this comes from the fact that the NXT-G software ships with the retail kit, and is the first programming language most people see when the use the NXT. NXT-G - 15 NXC - 5 C# - 3 leJOS - 3 RobotC - 3 Labview - 2 MS Robotics Studio - 2 Mindsqualls - 1 NXT Python - 1 pbLua - 1 Robolab - 1 Roborealm - 1 CindyScript - 1 I fully expect to see new books (both traditional books and workbooks) available soon for many of these languages. Many of the alternative languages are under active development, so I think they'll just keep getting better and better. And LEGO itself is working on updates to the NXT-G and the NXT firmware. UPDATE: Ulli posted a link in the comments to the CindyScript language and and ...

Indefatigable John Hansen has released a new beta version of NXC , his free C-like language for the NXT. It's 1.0.1b31 , and according to the release news, it contains not only a lot of fixes, but also an enhanced parser and enhancements for safe threading. One of the particularities of NXC is the fact that though it runs on the brick itself, you do not need a separate firmware - it uses the original LEGO NXT firmware. There's also a new relase available of the associated IDE BrickCC that supports also NXC. Check it out and provide feedback.

The guys from leJOS NXJ , the Open Source Java platform for the NXT, have published the new 0.3 release . From the release news: "This new version has many new features including storing programs and data to flash memory, a menu system, a file system, and an explorer that runs on your computer." Sounds promising! Give it a try (I'll decidedly do!) and post your feedback here.