Subject:
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Re: RCX+PC=Rubik's Cube Solver : eyeball & turbo 'RCX'
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Thu, 19 Apr 2001 04:36:25 GMT
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Original-From:
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Bruce Boyes Systronix <bboyes@systronix.comAVOIDSPAM>
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Viewed:
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811 times
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J P Brown wrote:
> When will we see the RCX-only version?
> I'm not "having a go", I'm just intrigued to see if it is possible. This is
> the main reason I'm not buying a Lego-Cam. It won't talk to the RCX.
> No offence taken. I think it's almost certainly doable completely onboard the
> RCX, and I considered this as an option. The reasons I didn't do this are as
> follows:
>
> 1. Couldn't think of a another good way of reading the cube facelets.
>
> Color discrimination of the LEGO light sensor is too poor to read the face
> colors accurately. Of course, one could retrofit the cube faces with
> gray-scale patches or other aids to proper discrimination, but I was aiming at
> a general solution to all 3^3 cubes, rather than a solution only for specially
> retrofitted cubes.
We have started to plan an autonomous "eyeball" using a modest color CMOS sensor
100x100 to 200x200 pixels. With 128x128 and 8 bit color, that's "only" 16 KBytes
per image, with no compression. With some simple data reduction it could be much
less. Of course you need enough memory and horsepower to actually do some image
processing. How about a 32-bit, 80 MHz controller, with 512 KBytes SRAM and up to 2
MBytes flash? I am referring to our native Java (i.e. no interpreter) "JStamp"
(link from www.systronix.com). This is a new controller which is capable of real
time control even though it is programmed in Java (until now, Java has been
painfully inadequate for such tasks due to its underlying interpreter and operating
system layers).
We are planning some Lego RCX-'compatible' replacement based on JStamp, using a
high speed (125-250 kbits) Control Area Network as the interface between multiple
JStamps. At 250 kbaud, this would let us transfer about 4 16 KByte images between
nodes along with other control and data traffic. This will not be a
bargain-basement system, obviously, but it will cost a lot less (and be a lot more
interesting) than an attached $2000 PC doing the processing.
We are aiming to have some prototype demonstrations running at JavaOne in June in
the Systronix and aJile booths as well as a special "real time" demonstration area.
So, we are very interested in input from the Lego experts regarding what sort of
computation and I/O hardware you would like to see. Imagine what such a CPU and the
power of the Java language could do! And did I mention it is all relatively low
power consumption too?
- Bruce Boyes
-- Embedded Java Technology --
Systronix: Salt Lake City Utah, USA
801-534-1017 www.systronix.com
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: RCX+PC=Rubik's Cube Solver
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| Gordon -- (...) No offence taken. I think it's almost certainly doable completely onboard the RCX, and I considered this as an option. The reasons I didn't do this are as follows: 1. Couldn't think of a another good way of reading the cube facelets. (...) (23 years ago, 19-Apr-01, to lugnet.robotics)
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