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Trail: Essential leJOS Classes

Lesson: Controlling the Hardware

In former times there have been two major obstacles one had to face when trying to build a robot on his own:

As a matter of fact, building even a very simple robot was extremely difficult without having a degree in cybernetics and being in possession of a machine factory at the same time.

The appearance of the LEGO MINDSTORMS™ marked a turning point: everybody who was able to put two LEGO® bricks together was more or less in the position now to build robots at home.
The second barrier was overcome by languages like leJOS; in fact it is particularly easy with leJOS to control the LEGO MINDSTORMS™ robot's hardware.
In the following lessons we will discuss how this is done for RCX related parts like

Buttons

takes a look at the VIEW, PRGM and RUN buttons on the RCX.

The LCD

introduces two classes which may be used to display simple output on the RCX display.

Motors

discusses the important topic of controlling the motors you might have connected to the RCX.

Sensors

delivers insight into the perception abilities you can add to your robot.

The IR interface

describes some simple mechanisms to transfer infrared signals between the RCX and the LEGO® tower.

Sound

works on the audio capabilities of the RCX.


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