lecture

Big boys play Java with Lego, leJOS and Android

During this talk I would like to show a combination of our beloved Java and the well known Lego bricks. Including some small motors and a few sensors, the Lego Mindstorms kit makes it possible to build various robots from Technic bricks, control them using the motors and make them interact with the outside world through the light, sound and distance sensors. The robots can then be programmed using the open-source leJOS library, which consists of a mobile virtual machine (to replace Mindstorms' original firmware) and a set of classes which make access to the hardware really simple. Additionaly, the talk covers some basic topics related to developing on the Android platform, particularly the use of Bluetooth and motion sensors. The above combined let us build a simple robot remotely controlled with an Android phone. The talk is going to have a theoretical part, during which I would like to introduce the basics of leJOS and Android development, and give a brief overview of the remote control application and the robot software. This is then going to be followed with a live demo showing the robot in action. I'm sure the talk will give you a pleasant break from your day-to-day Java tasks.