Hey guys so I love robots. Ive been playing with them alot lately. Well my only experience is using the PBASIC language for the Parallax Basic STAMP microcontroller. Its awesome and all but I have feeling Im gonna want to be doing more advance stuff in the future. Stuff that requires learning a more powerful programming language. So what should learn? I have two semesters of experience in C++ and no other languages. Should I just stick with the C++ or maybe I should learn Java? VB? C#? or should I stay away from OOP and go with C or Assembly?

This post has been edited by Spamity Calamity: 7 Sep, 2009 - 08:18 PM

From what I've seen, C# and VB.net work well, but C++ even better!

Hope that works out!

P.S: Java would be useless

You can use Java or C to program the Lego Mindstorm NXT. The iRobot Roomba natively uses C but I think there are C#/VB .NET wrappers available. You can also look into the Microsoft Robotics Studio, which I understand relies more on visual development than coding.

Stanford University has a nice set of Course videos on robotics you should check it out. (its free )

Not true; FIRST is providing a library for the FRC platform. When looking at language, you want to determine how well you know the syntax and what libraries are available. Hope this helps some.

Please explain why it would be useless.

I would recommend assembly - helps you to understand exactly what you are doing a little better, and other languages are better understood after first getting some familiarity with it. That being said, I only have experience with PIC microcontrollers and their instruction set...

There is a really great beginner's tutorial here: http://www.mstracey.btinternet.co.uk/pictutorial/picmain.htm that explains everything nicely.

Good luck!

MM

I would suggest Java and moving over to the Arduino development boards. The only reason I suggest this is because unless you are going to do this for some kind of financial gain, Arduino boards offer alot of flexibility for a small price. And their development tools are written in Java using some kind of psuedo C. So you can write in psudeo C, but also throw in some Java for things that might get complicated.

I am in no way an expert, just a microcontroller enthusiast.

It depends on what kind of robots. For my high school robotics team, we use LabVIEW. One of my friends that works for a robotics company uses c.

I would say first assembly for the processor you want to use, after that, when you understand how things work, you can move on to C.

In the embedded world C is the dominent high level languange even if C++ also come more and more. To learn C first is good since most embedded things are done in C.

Regards, Robert

Have you considered Microsoft's Robotics Developer Studio?

As a former programmer for real time controls, I've found nothing beats FORTH. The code is modular, extensible, and a multitasker can be added easily. Most languages require "edit,compile,load,execute" development cycles, FORTH lets you dynamically add to the language while the application is running. Many a time I needed to dynamically add a command to let me view variable states or exercise a command while the system is running. When working with real time controls, which I'd expect robotics to require, it is a wonderful language.

You will need to learn how to speak in zeros and ones.

In high school we had a Hero Robot. It has it's own machine language that we used to program it.

Personally, what language you use is based on the controller. Were I work we have multiple computer languages for one product.

there's
masm for the firmware
the firmware update is VB
the chips get programed through an IDE (looks just like C++)
and the fuel gauge chip uses USB

PS the LEGO mind storm kits are super!

Hey,

Ok heres my $0.02 on this topic. First off Java is not useless in any means. If you use Java you simply have to abstract the hardware when your using it (Can be done with Player / Stage and / or ROS).
The past 2 years I've been in a robotics club at my university (University at Buffalo) and on our autonomous robot last year we used Java and this year we are moving to C++. We are making the move because we are not using our "home-brewed" hardware abstraction anymore, but instead are making the jump to ROS. While ROS does have Java bindings, it's C++ bindings are much better, and are simply better suited to our needs. Also C++ allows you to implement "advanced" features such as image processing using tools such as OpenCV.
I would say if it is *simple* robotics that you want to program, something like Java on top of a layer such as ROS would be a excellent choice.

If you would like to know more about the competition my club is in, its called the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC)
Also, while there's not much info on it, it does have some pictures you can check out my clubs website