Re: New Lego controller

On 5/31/05, dan miller <[email protected]> wrote:
> I've heard rumors Lego may be planning a new Mindstorms product.  IMNSHO
> something like this would be perfect.  Smaller units, more modularity, easy
> connectivity between brains.  It fits perfectly into the Lego paradigm, and
> the technology is finally there to do it economically.
> 
> I think the biggest challenge would be the software side.  Something like
> robolab needs to be modularized, so the parts of the algorithm that should
> naturally reside in different hardware components can be automatically
> routed there, and so on.  On the C/C++/NQC side, you need some sort of
> similar multi-process toolchain.  Writing code for a new smart component
> should be as easy as defining a new function.
> 
> -dbm
> 
Hi Dan,
I seem to remember discussing this before. I agree this would be
perfect. In terms of software, the system could start out as a simple
one module system, and use an interface like robolab or RCX code to
start newbies off. When a new module is added, default firmware will
just treat it as additional sensors and motors.

More advanced languages - Robolab, C/C++/Java (or even Python) based
could then be used to support multiple modules. Again - I agree with
in Robolab - a new function call. But advanced programmers should be
able to use the modules in fully asynchronous modes with a few
inter-process communications across the bus to get a quite powerful
robot.

Orion
-- 
http://orionrobots.co.uk - Build Robots

Online Castle Building RPG -
http://www.darkthrone.com/recruit.dt?uid=V30311I30328J30379X30379E30260X30277