dlife.models.simpleworld
Class SimpleWorldRobotController

java.lang.Object
  dlife.robot.Controller
      dlife.models.simpleworld.SimpleWorldRobotController

public abstract class SimpleWorldRobotController
extends Controller

Abstract base class for controllers for SimpleWorldRobots. See the documentation for the dlife.models.simpleworld package for information about the use of this class.

Typically a concrete implementation of this class will contain only the step(SimpleWorldRobot robot) method. This method will accesses the robot's sensors using the following methods in the SimpleWorldRobot class:

• SimpleWorldRobot.getSmell()
• SimpleWorldRobot.getLeftColor()
• SimpleWorldRobot.getFrontColor()
• SimpleWorldRobot.getRightColor()

Base on the sensors the step method will invoke the following methods to take actions in the world:

• SimpleWorldRobot.moveForward()
• SimpleWorldRobot.rotateRight()
• SimpleWorldRobot.rotateLeft()

Several examples of SimpleWorldRobotControllers can be found in the examples.dlife.models.simpleworld package.

Version:

Sep 29, 2010

Author:

Grant Braught, Dickinson College

See Also:

SimpleWorld, SimpleWorldRobot, examples.dlife.models.simpleworld

Field Summary

static int	GUI_DELAY Delay (in ms) used between calls to step when the GUI is displayed.
static int	NO_GUI_DELAY Delay (in ms) used between calls to step when the GUI is not displayed.

Constructor Summary

SimpleWorldRobotController()

Method Summary

void	startUp() Invoked when this Controller is started in the ControlCenter.
void	startUp(Robot robot) Implementation of the startUp method required by Controller.
void	step() Implementation of the step method required by Controller.
abstract void	step(SimpleWorldRobot robot) Invoked once for each control opportunity provided to the robot.

Methods inherited from class dlife.robot.Controller

shutDown

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Field Detail

GUI_DELAY

public static final int GUI_DELAY

Delay (in ms) used between calls to step when the GUI is displayed.

See Also:

Constant Field Values

NO_GUI_DELAY

public static final int NO_GUI_DELAY

Delay (in ms) used between calls to step when the GUI is not displayed.

See Also:

Constant Field Values

Constructor Detail

SimpleWorldRobotController

public SimpleWorldRobotController()

Method Detail

startUp

public final void startUp(Robot robot)

Implementation of the startUp method required by Controller. Stores an internal reference to the Robot being controlled so that it can be passed to the step method of the concrete implementations of this class.

Specified by:

startUp in class Controller

Parameters:

robot - the Robot that this Controller will be controlling.

step

public final void step()

Implementation of the step method required by Controller. This implementation ensures that the controller will not have a control opportunity if the robot's life force <= 0. It also decreases the life force by 1 unit for each control opportunity that is provided. In addition, this method introduces a small delay (100ms) if the controller is being run with a GUI. This slows down the animation to a speed that is reasonable to watch.

Specified by:

step in class Controller

startUp

public void startUp()

Invoked when this Controller is started in the ControlCenter. Sub-classes that wish to do initialization at startup (e.g. creating a neural network, etc...) should override this method.

step

public abstract void step(SimpleWorldRobot robot)

Invoked once for each control opportunity provided to the robot. This method may invoke any of the methods in the SimpleWorldRobot class to read sensors or move the robot. The robot's life force is decreased by one unit each time step is called. In addition, each movement of the robot caused by the code in step costs one unit of life force (e.g. rotating right and then moving forward costs 2 units).

Parameters:

robot - The robot being controlled.