An Ada interface to lego mindstorms

ABSTRACT

This article presents an Ada interface to the Lego Mindstorms^TM RCX "brick", the core element of a commercial product that emerged from a collaboration between the Lego Corporation and MIT's Media Laboratory. Since its arrival on the market in 1998, it has considerable interest in the computing community: a variety of operating systems and language interfaces are available for it, all provided free of charge by people who simply wanted to find out how the RCX workedThe interface described here is in use at the Air Force Academy as part of an experiment in computer science education. Students with no prior programming background are given a pre-built Mindstorms robot and a series of programming challenges, which they then attempt to implement using Ada. Our hope is that the experience of programming robots will provide an effective, efficient, and enjoyable method for conveying essential computer science concepts. We are currently attempting to assess its effectiveness, and hope to present our results at a future date.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.2 Language Classifications

          Nouns: Ada

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.0 GENERAL
      Subjects: Hardware/software interfaces

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Curriculum

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Human Factors, Languages, Management, Performance, Theory