Robotics

[KingLuvely]

So I'm going to join robotics at my school next year and they recruited me for the programming team of it. I'm in AP CompSci now so I know some java but I heard they code in C++ there. I have two questions: 1. How hard is C++ compared to Java in general? 2. To anyone in robotics; how hard is it? (I know there's fun mostly but still).

[Nallown]

So I'm going to join robotics at my school next year and they recruited me for the programming team of it. I'm in AP CompSci now so I know some java but I heard they code in C++ there. I have two questions: 1. How hard is C++ compared to Java in general? 2. To anyone in robotics; how hard is it? (I know there's fun mostly but still).

Have you done any sort of AI programming before?

 

If you have some pretty good java experience then switching to C++ shouldn't be hard at all. They're pretty much are the same since they're both C based but the problem comes in when whether you do or do not have any AI programming experience and know how to control I/Os

[Ciccioo]

people go to school to learn tho

if he already has experiences he will just have a slightly easier start, otherwise he will have good times understanding and learning how to do things

and languages are easy, programming is hard, so c++ can be learnt as any other programming language with time and practise

imho

[Osmium]

     I am in a robotics team and I will say it is a lot of fun. I do not do any programing and my team uses Python instead of C++ so I really can't tell you anything about it.

 

     I personally design and build things. Right now I am designing an arm that uses a single motor to raise an arm three feet high. That might not sound hard and it really isn't but one motor is easier to pilot than two and none of the other teams I have seen have used this design so I might be on to something.

 

Have you done any sort of AI programming before?

 

If you have some pretty good java experience then switching to C++ shouldn't be hard at all. They're pretty much are the same since they're both C based but the problem comes in when whether you do or do not have any AI programming experience and know how to control I/Os

 

Are you in an actual robotics team? I have never been to a competition where AI is even practical. Pre written programs although clunky always do better than AI. Teams that do AI never win since it is just too hard. To do properly.

[Nallown]

     I am in a robotics team and I will say it is a lot of fun. I do not do any programing and my team uses Python instead of C++ so I really can't tell you anything about it.

 

     I personally design and build things. Right now I am designing an arm that uses a single motor to raise an arm three feet high. That might not sound hard and it really isn't but one motor is easier to pilot than two and none of the other teams I have seen have used this design so I might be on to something.

 

 

Are you in an actual robotics team? I have never been to a competition where AI is even practical. Pre written programs although clunky always do better than AI. Teams that do AI never win since it is just too hard. To do properly.

It really depends on what you're doing, if you create a robot for something like robot wars then you're better off manually choosing an action where as if you create some sort remote control car which won't allow you to drive when near a wall then AI would be the winning point. A 100% AI based robot isn't the way to go especially if you're not an experienced robotic programmer and also that wasn't my point

[Osmium]

It really depends on what you're doing, if you create a robot for something like robot wars then you're better off manually choosing an action where as if you create some sort remote control car which won't allow you to drive when near a wall then AI would be a winning point. A 100% AI based robot isn't the way to go especially if you're not an experienced robotic programmer and also that wasn't my point

 

     "Robot wars" is not really a big (but it would be awesome if it was!) thing in competition. But most of the time the competitions involve a task you have to design a robot to complete tasks like raising a flag or picking up blocks and putting them somewhere on a closed course. Usually you are allowed to pilot them but other times you have to basically set the robot loose on a course. On the ones where you are not allowed to pilot teams that do AI will almost never win since it is so difficult to program the robot to respond to everything that might go wrong.

[rashdanml]

The general process with Robotics at the high school level is responding to sensor inputs. Depending on the sensors, and how creatively you use them, you can achieve quite a lot. 

 

If you know Java, C++ is easy to pick up. 

 

I took part in the FIRST Robotics competition back in high school; at the time, I didn't know any programming, so it wasn't practical for me to join the programming sub-team (our team supervisor agreed as well), so I focused on doing other tasks. Looking back though, with decent programming background, it's not that complicated. In my later years in high school, I took courses on programming mini Sumo robots with BASIC, which gave me a bit more insight into the process (sensor input and programming responses to said inputs). 

 

The above competitions are usually done with remote control, with a brief autonomous mode at the start of each round. The autonomous mode is generally programmed as a sequence of tasks using the sensor inputs to track positions of any moving components in the robot. The robots were more of a Mars rover type vehicle with arms, as opposed to a bi/quadruped robot. 

[LePawel]

Pointers, the bless and the curse, start learning now

Also, no fancy for loops, back to good old int i=0

[KingLuvely]

Thanks guys! Sounds like I'm making the right choice!

 

Have you done any sort of AI programming before?

 

If you have some pretty good java experience then switching to C++ shouldn't be hard at all. They're pretty much are the same since they're both C based but the problem comes in when whether you do or do not have any AI programming experience and know how to control I/Os

Not any AI programming but the head of the Programming team said he'll train me for what I don't know this summer before the season starts.