Java Book on Lego Mindstorms Robots
Brian Bagnall
seems like a good time for an announcement. My sincere apologies if this
message inadvertently appears on the wrong newsgroup. I'm trying to avoid
spamming by picking relevant groups where this book might be of interest.
Briefly, the following topics are covered in the book:
- an introduction to the Robotics Invention System
- other kits and products in the Mindstorms universe
- a feature overview of leJOS, the Java platform for the RCX brick
- installation instructions for leJOS
- setup instruction for a powerful IDE
- an introduction to Java
- differences between leJOS Java and Sun's Java
- the leJOS API (how to access motors, sensors, and other RCX components)
- an encyclopedia of the 129 unique Robotics Invention System parts
- building common Lego structures
- Behavior Control programming, a technique of programming insect level,
behavior based intelligence
- basic navigation concepts
- navigation using timing techniques
- navigation using rotation sensors
- building a simple proximity detector using only the parts in the kit
- building an accurate distance sensor using electronics
- building a wall follower
- building a compass sensor
- navigating with the compass sensor
- PC to RCX communications using Java Streams
- RCX to RCX communications using Java Streams
- controlling the RCX brick from a PC across the Internet
- setting up a simple server and JSP page to control the RCX (using a Bean)
- an advanced overview of leJOS (Contributed by Jose Solozano)
- memory saving strategies
- using the leJOS JVM to run other languages, such as NetRexx
- porting leJOS to other processors (Contributed by Jose Solozano)
- ordering sensors, kits, and other parts
- utilities available for leJOS
- web resources
I'd like to express my sincere gratitude to the following people:
Jose Solorzano for providing the technical review of the book
Paul Andrews and Juergen Stuber, who have been leading the leJOS project
since Jose "semi-retired" from the scene
Philippe "Philo" Hurbain and Claude Baumann for helping so much with the
electronics projects
Cay Horstmann for allowing this book to become part of his Core series of
books.
Greg Doench for coordinating the creation of this book
Harold Cabrera and Jeff Gillespie for rendering the instructions for the
robots
Finally, enormous thanks to Lego for the product that started it all!
NOTE: I just want to mention that the link on the leJOS homepage is using
Amazon Associates:
http://lejos.sourceforge.net
All profits generated through this program will be used to obtain a domain
name and hold contests for building Lego Robots. Hopefully we will be able
to raise enough money to provide some good prizes for regular robot building
competitions in the future. NONE of the money will be used by any of the
leJOS developers as leJOS has always been a labor of love for all of us. The
Amazon Associates account is managed by Juergen Stuber, Jose Solorzano, Paul
Andrews and myself.
Brian Bagnall
http://www.mts.net/~bbagnall