Geekings From France
commands divided up into three tabs.
The General Orders tab includes
commands to begin and end the
program, begin and end subroutines,
and to define and compare variables.
The Basic Orders tab includes commands to move the robot forward,
backward, left and right; wait commands to prolong the movements;
commands to manipulate servos; and
other commands to set digital input
values or to save mysterious multimeter
values. The Special Orders tab includes
commands that deal with the POB
eye; like ones to center the robot in
front of a pattern. Commands
chosen from these tabs are simply
dragged and dropped onto the grid.
Programs are assembled from left
to right, in something that generally
resembles ladder logic. RISBEE dodges
some of the disadvantages of ladder
logic by offering special commands to
form and execute subroutines, and
subroutines can even be repeated
multiple times. Programs in RISBEE
can also include sensor input and
conditional activities, like having the
robot execute a certain activity when
it sees a certain pattern with the
POB eye, or even execute a command
for the entire time that it sees the
pattern. While some real deal
programming terms like “goto” and
“subroutine” populate RISBEE, even
with the absence of a glut of official
terminology, beginning programmers
are effectively introduced to a lot of
essential programming concepts that
will serve them well in their later
programming endeavors. We are
confident that the folks at POB
Technology have created a winning
interface in RISBEE that strikes the
balance between being informative
and being fun. With the interactive
LCD screen and joystick — and even
the RISBEE programming itself that
can feel more like a game of
Battleship with its animated icons and
innovative structure — the POB robot
is sure to appeal to novice roboticists.
targeted by it, some more
experienced folks might be
wondering what the POB
robot has in store for them.
The answer is — as you might
have hoped — plenty. Once
again, POB Technology has
an excellent website that is
choc full of resources that
are sure to answer every
need for hobbyists and
serious roboticists. In addition
to the RISBEE software that
can be downloaded from
the site, users can get their
hands on a number of other
programming tools, and also
documentation on the modification
and physical construction of the
company’s impressive bots. The other
programming interfaces deserve a
mention because they are a step up in
complexity from RISBEE, but still good
for those who want to do crazy things
with the bot but are reluctant to
program. The POB Builder, for example,
is another programming interface for
use with the POB bot. While not quite
as graphical as RISBEE, it still offers
easy to use commands assembled in
a ladder logic form. It may not offer
the level of sophistication some users
might demand, however, the POB
Builder is still a useful program for
rapid prototyping.
The POB Tools program offers an
easy way for users to add their own
POB EYE (“EYE” SEE YOU!).
patterns to the POB Eye’s repertoire of
recognized shapes. Users can import
their own bitmap files for the robot
to learn, so these patterns could
ostensibly come from programs like
Paint or from scanned pictures saved
in the right format. The documentation on the POB Eye provides ample
pointers on what the Eye can and
cannot recognize, so users should be
able to have fun with it in no time.
And, of course, the programming
experts always have the straight up,
no nonsense, no graphics C
programming interface to use if they
prefer something a bit more
sophisticated. Once again, though,
ample documentation and sample
programs make the C interface more
than just a playground for the experts,
POB BUILDER.
The Great Pink Litten
With all of that attention being
paid to RISBEE and to the beginners
SERVO 05.2008 75
