Intellejos
Introduction
The Intellejos system is based on Intellego, a basic robot simulator designed for robotics researchers. The purpose of Intellejos is to learn programming in Java using the LeJOS (Lego Java Operating System) platform. It offers the possibility to quickly test certain algorithms that will be used for Lego Mindstorms, without having to build the full robot. This manual explains how to use Intellejos and implement your own robots and worlds. Any questions or remarks can be sent to intellejos@kooijmans.nu .
User Manual for Windows
Required software
- It is necessary to have the Java 2 Software Development Kit 1.4.* (other versions won't work) installed. You can download a copy at http://java.sun.com .
Setting up Intellejos
- Download a copy of Intellejos here .
- After downloading the .zip file that contains a version of Intellejos, unzip it to a preferred directory.
- Edit the ‘setup.bat' file in the root directory of Intellejos and change the INTELLEJOS_HOME and JAVA_HOME variables to point to the correct paths.
- Run the ‘build.bat' file to compile the software.
Running Intellejos
- After setting up you can start Intellejos by running the ‘Intellejos.bat' file.
- When the Intellejos window appears you can open a simulation world by choosing ‘pick simworld' in the control-menu.
- To place a robot in the simworld choose ‘add robot' in the control-menu. Enter coordinates and bearing of the robot and choose OK. The coordinates are relative to the upper-left corner of the window in pixels. The robot will automatically start after loading it in the simworld.
Building your own simworlds
- Self-made simworld classes can be added to the ‘simworld' directory of Intellejos. You can make your own simworld classes by extending the ‘BasicSimWorld' class. Adding objects of ‘SimWall' and ‘SimPath' to the class, as demonstrated in the enclosed examples, gives you the ability to fill the simworld with walls and paths.
- After programming the simworld run ‘build.bat' to compile.
Programming the robot
- Write a java program as you would normally do for Lego Mindstorms and place it in the ‘robots' directory. An example robot is available in this directory. The file with the ‘public static void main(String[] args)' method can be loaded into the simulator. There are some differences however:
- The LeJOS packages that you need to control the robot are modified and there is only a limited set of LeJOS classes available in the simulator. You can find the API docs in the ‘lejos\docs' directory of Intellejos.
- While you would normally import ‘josx.xxxx.*', you need to change ‘josx' to ‘lejos' in the simulator. This is to prevent the simulator from using the wrong packages.
- Normally a Lego Mindstorms robot will exit after the main method is finished. This however, is not the same for an Intellejos robot, which will continue running.
- After programming your robot run ‘build.bat' to compile.
- When loading the robot in Intellejos, the contents of the ‘args.txt' file in the ‘robots' directory will be given as an argument to the main method of the robot.
References
© 2004 Tijn Kooijmans