Package dlife.robot.gui.controlcenter

A graphical user interface (GUI) for interacting with the dLife supported robots.

See:
Description

Class Summary

ControlCenter

A graphical user interface (GUI) for interacting with the dLife supported robots.

Package dlife.robot.gui.controlcenter Description

A graphical user interface (GUI) for interacting with the dLife supported robots. The ControlCenter provides a uniform graphical environment for observing and controlling all of the robots that are supported by dLife.

Launching the ControlCenter:

After you have completed the basic dLife installation you can launch the ControlCenter by double clicking the dLifeDist/UserScripts/ControlCenter file (Mac/Linux) or the dLifeDist/UserScripts/ControlCenter.bat file (Windows).

When launched the ControlCenter will appear as shown below:

The main elements of the ControlCenter GUI are:

"Robot" Dropdown:

The "Robot" dropdown contains a list of all of the Robots that are supported by dLife. To use a particular robot, choose its Robot sub-class from this dropdown.

"Controller" Button:

The "Controller" button is used to choose a Controller sub-class to be used with the selected Robot. A Controller sub-class is a user written Java class that controls the robot. The Controller will create Sensors and Effectors, add them to the Robot, read the sensors and respond by controlling the robot's effectors. More information on creating controllers and specific examples can be found in the Controller class documentation.

Sensor and Effector "Tabs":

Initially, the ControlCenter contains two tabs: "Info" and "Console" with the "Console" tab being active. The "Info" tab contains information about the dLife library. The "Console" tab displays information from the dLife system or information printed by a Controller. When a Controller is started (see "Start Up..." Buttons below), an additional tab will appear for each Sensor and each Effector. The tabs for each Sensor and Effector will provide a GUI interface. Sensor GUIs will display the current sensor readings. Effector GUIs will provide controls with which the effector can be manipulated. Double clicking on a tab (with the exception of "Info") will display the contents of the tab in its own window. Closing the window will place the contents back into a tab in the ControlCenter.

"Start Up"/"Run"/"Step" and "Shut Down" Buttons:

These buttons control the execution of the selected Controller.

• "Start Up": Clicking "Start Up" will establish a connection to the robot, possibly prompting the user for connection information such as IP or Bluetooth address. The Controller.startUp(Robot) method of the Controller will also be invoked. Tabs for each Sensor and Effector added to the robot will appear in the ControlCenter and the sensor values will begin being updated.
• "Run": Clicking "Run" will cause the Controller.step() method to be invoked periodically. When "Run" is clicked the button label will change to "Stop". Clicking "Stop" will stop the periodic invocations of step.

  The rate at which step() is invoked depends on a number of factors: the speed of the computer, the number of Sensors and Effectors added to the robot, the speed of the communication channel with the robot and the latency in the robot's responses to commands.

• "Step": Each clicking "Step" will invoke the step() method exactly once.

• "Shut Down": Clicking "Shut Down" will stop all of the robot's effectors and close the connection to the robot. All of the Sensor and Effector tabs will be removed from the ControlCenter. Finally some statistics regarding the number and rate of sensor reads and control opportunities will be reported in the "Console" tab.

Interacting with a Robot in the ControlCenter:

To interact with a robot with the ControlCenter:

1. Ensure that you have completed the basic dLife installation.
2. Ensure that you have done any additional installation and setup necessary for your robot.
3. Launch the ControlCenter (if it is not already running).
4. Choose the type of robot that you would like to use from the "Robot:" drop down menu.
5. Choose a controller for the robot by clicking on button next to the "Controller:" label.
   There are a number of sample controllers for each type of robot that dLife supports. For now navigate to the dLifeDist/examples/dlife/robot directory. Open the subdirectory for the type of robot that you are using and choose the file with that robot's name followed by the word "Drone" (e.g. HemissonDrone.class or AiboDrone.class ).
6. Click on the "Start Up" button at the bottom of the ControlCenter and provide the connection information for your robot. See the documentation for your robot type for more information about the connection information that is required.
   After connecting to your robot the ControlCenter should display tabs for the sensors and effectors provided by your robot. You can observe and control your robot via the GUI's within these tabs.
7. When finished, click on the "Shut Down" button a the bottom of the ControlCenter.

Controlling a Robot with Java:

To control a robot programmatically within the ControlCenter you will create a sub-class of the dlife.robot.Controller class. The class that you create will configure the Robot with Sensors and Effectors and issue commands to the robot to be carried out. See the Controller class documentation for a detailed discussion of how to create a Controller for use with the ControlCenter.

Using Simulated Robots:

In addition to controlling physical robots, as described above, the ControlCenter can also be used to control simulated robots running in the Player/Stage robot simulation system. dLife treats physical and simulated robots exactly the same. Thus, everything described above about interacting with robots applies equally well to interacting with robots simulated in Player/Stage. In general all that is necessary to use a simulated robot is to select the "Player" version of a robot (e.g. dlife.robot.hemisson.HemissonPlayer instead of dlife.robot.hemisson.Hemisson) See the dlife.robot.player package documentation for additional information about installing Player/Stage, using simulations and creating simulations.