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From: mfb@mbunix.mitre.org (Michael F Brenner)
Subject: Re: ada and robots
Date: 1997/05/29
Date: 1997-05-29T00:00:00+00:00	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <5mjqpq$lkp@top.mitre.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 338CDA96.53EA@halcyon.com


The Ada language has the required features for programming controllers:
low level bit operations, absolute memory addressing, interface to 
assembler code, interrupt handling, etc. It also has a number of features
not required, but helpful for programming controllers: the best bug
catching at compile time, some of the best encapsulation, the ability
to express many algorithms without bug-prone pointers, good optimization,
ability to do tasking, etc. In a toy robot, the controllers do not need
much programming, usually an external scheduling computer does the
dynamics and kinematics, resulting in a set of curves that the controller
follows, programmed in an ASIC or a PROM as numbers with a very tiny
program to put those numbers into a memory mapped board register, and
the hardware does the rest. In autonomous robots, however, where each
tick of the clock requires computation a Kaman array of Kalman filters,
adjustment of the boundaries in a Voronoi diagram, and reclustering
of the distance and force matrix between obstacles, the controller
of a joint looks a lot more like a complex general-purpose computer
with specially designed I/O circuits. In the first case, the toy
robot, it does not matter which language you use because there are
so few actual instructions required, if the whole thing is table-driven,
or else the instructions are boiler-plate macros stamped out by some
finite state machines, where, again, source language is irrelevant,
they are just a bunch of gotos mixed with set-port commands at the machine
code level. In the second case, the sophisticated bug control and
packaging features of Ada can help develop the code faster than other
languages, regardless of whether Ada is the target language; that is, 
after developing in Ada, if you find that the code is mostly just a
bunch of FSAs anyway, you can stamp them out as boiler plate assembler code,
using those same FSAs with a different action matrix, and use that
assembler code as the target. However, in an autonomous robot, Ada might
be the best language for the final target as well.





  parent reply	other threads:[~1997-05-29  0:00 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 134+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
1997-05-28  0:00 ada and robots John Bohn
1997-05-29  0:00 ` Stephen Leake
1997-05-29  0:00 ` Michael F Brenner [this message]
1997-05-30  0:00 ` John Cook
1997-05-30  0:00   ` Tom Moran
1997-06-01  0:00     ` Dale Stanbrough
1997-06-02  0:00       ` John G. Volan
     [not found]         ` <5mv984$7kn@news.emi.com>
1997-06-03  0:00           ` Joe Gwinn
1997-06-04  0:00             ` Pat Rogers
1997-06-05  0:00               ` Joe Gwinn
1997-06-14  0:00                 ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-16  0:00                 ` Ken Garlington
1997-06-16  0:00                   ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-17  0:00                   ` Joe Gwinn
1997-06-28  0:00                     ` Mike Stark
1997-07-03  0:00                       ` Joe Gwinn
1997-06-04  0:00             ` John G. Volan
1997-06-05  0:00               ` Joe Gwinn
1997-06-14  0:00                 ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-17  0:00                   ` Joe Gwinn
1997-07-03  0:00                     ` Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
     [not found]               ` <9706052229.AA29554@jaguar.nmc.ed.ray.com>
1997-06-06  0:00                 ` John G. Volan
1997-06-07  0:00                   ` RC
1997-06-09  0:00                   ` Joe Gwinn
1997-06-05  0:00             ` Jon S Anthony
1997-06-05  0:00               ` Joe Gwinn
1997-06-14  0:00                 ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-10  0:00             ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-10  0:00               ` Joe Gwinn
1997-06-11  0:00                 ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-12  0:00                   ` George Haddad
1997-06-16  0:00                   ` Matthew S. Whiting
1997-06-17  0:00                     ` Robert A Duff
1997-06-18  0:00                       ` Ken Garlington
1997-07-17  0:00                         ` Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
1997-06-20  0:00                       ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-20  0:00                       ` Adam Beneschan
1997-06-17  0:00                     ` Jon S Anthony
1997-06-17  0:00                       ` Matthew S. Whiting
1997-06-18  0:00                         ` Robert A Duff
1997-06-18  0:00                         ` Samuel Mize
1997-06-18  0:00                           ` Matthew S. Whiting
1997-06-18  0:00                         ` Jon S Anthony
1997-06-22  0:00                           ` John G. Volan
1997-06-17  0:00                     ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-17  0:00                     ` Stephen Leake
1997-06-17  0:00                       ` Robert A Duff
1997-06-20  0:00                       ` jim granville
1997-06-21  0:00                         ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-24  0:00                           ` Re(dux): Ada for small machines (was Re: ada and robots) Ken Garlington
1997-06-29  0:00                             ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-29  0:00                         ` ada and robots Matthew Heaney
1997-07-03  0:00                           ` Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
1997-07-13  0:00                             ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-17  0:00                     ` Samuel Mize
1997-06-18  0:00                       ` Steve O'Neill
1997-06-19  0:00                         ` Anonymous
1997-06-19  0:00                       ` Kenneth W. Sodemann
1997-06-20  0:00                       ` Stephen Leake
1997-06-20  0:00                         ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-03  0:00           ` Martin A. Stembel
1997-06-04  0:00         ` RC
1997-06-04  0:00           ` Larry Kilgallen
1997-06-04  0:00           ` John G. Volan
1997-06-05  0:00           ` Jon S Anthony
1997-06-02  0:00     ` Nick Roberts
1997-06-04  0:00       ` Jan Galkowski
1997-06-05  0:00         ` Albert K. Lee
1997-06-06  0:00           ` dana
1997-06-07  0:00             ` John G. Volan
1997-06-10  0:00               ` dana
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
1997-06-05  0:00 Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-93
1997-06-09  0:00 ` Jerry Petrey
1997-06-10  0:00   ` Alan Brain
1997-06-10  0:00     ` Joe Gwinn
1997-06-11  0:00       ` Alan Brain
1997-06-11  0:00         ` Spam Hater
1997-06-11  0:00         ` Joe Gwinn
1997-06-11  0:00       ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-11  0:00         ` Samuel Mize
1997-06-13  0:00           ` Erik Magnuson
1997-06-17  0:00         ` Joe Gwinn
1997-06-18  0:00           ` Jon S Anthony
1997-06-19  0:00             ` Jonathan Guthrie
1997-06-20  0:00           ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-05  0:00 Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-93
1997-06-09  0:00 Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-93
1997-06-12  0:00 Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-93
1997-06-16  0:00 Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-93
1997-06-16  0:00 Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-93
1997-06-17  0:00 ` Joe Gwinn
1997-06-18  0:00   ` Jon S Anthony
1997-06-18  0:00     ` Brian Rogoff
1997-06-20  0:00   ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-23  0:00     ` Geert Bosch
1997-07-02  0:00       ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-23  0:00     ` Richard Kenner
1997-06-23  0:00       ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-25  0:00   ` Jonathan Guthrie
1997-06-25  0:00   ` Will Rose
1997-06-21  0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1997-06-19  0:00 Jon S Anthony
1997-06-19  0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1997-06-20  0:00   ` Jon S Anthony
1997-06-22  0:00   ` John G. Volan
1997-06-25  0:00     ` Richard A. O'Keefe
1997-06-23  0:00   ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-24  0:00     ` Brian Rogoff
1997-06-20  0:00 Ada " Huy Vo
1997-06-23  0:00 ` Jon S Anthony
1997-06-24  0:00 Huy Vo
1997-06-25  0:00 ` Alan Brain
1997-06-25  0:00 ` Wes Groleau
1997-06-25  0:00 ` Dale Stanbrough
1997-06-25  0:00 ` Jon S Anthony
1997-06-26  0:00 ` Ken Garlington
1997-07-01  0:00   ` Tom Moran
1997-06-26  0:00 Huy Vo
1997-06-27  0:00 ` nma123
1997-06-27  0:00 ` Alan Brain
1997-06-27  0:00   ` Wes Groleau
1997-06-27  0:00   ` Stephen Leake
1997-06-27  0:00 ` Jon S Anthony
1997-06-27  0:00 ` Richard A. O'Keefe
1997-06-27  0:00 ` Wes Groleau
     [not found] <867541382.23405@dejanews.com>
1997-06-29  0:00 ` John Howard
1997-06-30  0:00 Huy Vo
1997-07-01  0:00 ` Alan Brain
1997-07-11  0:00   ` Will Rose
1997-07-02  0:00 ` Mattias Sj�sv�rd
1997-07-01  0:00 Huy Vo
1997-07-02  0:00 ` Wes Groleau
1997-07-02  0:00 Huy Vo
1997-07-04  0:00 ` Richard A. O'Keefe
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