RobotC
Latest
Arduino mechs learn RobotC, plot assimilation with Lego Mindstorms
Arduino boards have smoothed the creation of lots of eccentric thingamajigs, but robotics and controllers are still not for the faint of heart. Luckily, RoboMatter is coming to the rescue of would-be roboticists with a public beta version of its C-based RobotC language for Arduino. Joining Lego Mindstorm and other bots, Arduino will get RobotC's straightforward sensor and motor controls, along with a debugger and sample program library, while still keeping its native Wiring language. So, if you want to be a Kickstarter magnate , or just out-weird everyone else, rolling your own droid is now a bit easier.
Innovation First rolls out ROBOTC programming kit for VEX robots
We haven't heard much about the Carnegie Mellon-developed ROBOTC programming language since it went into beta testing way back when, but it looks like the kinks have finally been worked out -- at least to the satisfaction of Innovation First, which has just rolled out a ROBOTC programming kit for its VEX robots. Among other things, it'll let users write programs that allow robots to perform several tasks independently, and it'll give them the ability to start, stop and pause the execution of a program directly from their computers. If that sounds like the upgrade you've been waiting for, you can grab the basic kit now for $100 even, or get a twelve seat multi-license for a comparative bargain of $315.
Multi-bot programming language accepting beta testers
If you have what it takes to spend countless hours tinkering with small robots, coding in a brand new language, and filing a stream of bug reports, then the National Robotics Engineering Center wants you to beta test its new multi-plaform bot programming software. Tasked by the educational outreach department at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Academy with developing a commercial application capable of controlling the most popular kits on the market, the team came up with a language called RobotC, which can be used to write scripts for both the NXT and RCX varieties of Lego Mindstorms bots as well as that Vex Robotics kit we featured in our Holiday Gift Guide. As part of the beta testing program, you'll get a free copy of the software to play with in exchange for your promise to participate in the Bug Tracking system -- which probably isn't much of a burden for those hardcore enthusiasts who spend all day living, breathing, and blogging this stuff anyway.
