[chbot] Simple robot programming

[Simon Knopp]

That project looks interesting. I agree, ladder logic is a good way to  
get started with programming simple robots.

What would really make a tool such as that powerful would be the  
ability to create functional blocks, either of ladder logic or code. A  
block of ladder logic would allow higher level commands like in  
Mindstorms---"turn 90º left" or "move forward for 1 second". A block  
of code (much like PLCs' structured text) could allow one to write a  
function in C (for example) and have it represented as a block within  
the ladder logic environment. These blocks could be created by anyone  
who knows the language and distributed easily to those that don't.

I know I'm sort of just describing what PLCs can already do, but to my  
(relatively uninformed :-) mind it wouldn't be too difficult a feature  
to implement into a system like that you linked to and would make more  
powerful programming with ladder logic feasible and accessible to more  
people.

Just my two cents worth.
Simon.


On 29/06/2009, at 9:55 PM, Charles Manning wrote:

> Morris and I had a very interesting conversation about simplifying
> robot programming.
>
> Many people are drawn to Mindstorms-like drag and drop programming.
> This is indeed a simple way to do very simple programming (but is
> hopeless for anything of reasonable complexity). These tools are also
> no open source or free.
>
> Fortuitously I got into a discussion with Timothy about PLC "ladder
> logic" programming. This could be a simple way to do very simple
> programs. There are a few very interesting open source ladder logic
> projects out there that compile a ladder and generate a "byte code"
> which runs on a tiny interpreter. These can be simple enough to run on
> a small AVR, moderate PIC, Linux box etc. Anything that can eat C.
>
> Ladder logic is a graphical representation of an electrical circuit
> that operates on inputs and outputs
> eg.
>  |     IN1   IN2  OUT1  |
> +-----[ ]---[ ]---( )------+
> |                                |
>
> If IN1 is on and IN2 is on then turn on output 1.
>
> Better descriptions in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladder_logic
>
> A ladder logic tool I'm going to look at more is at http://www.cq.cx/ladder.pl
>
> --Charles
>
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