Monday Robot Test

[R. Andrew Lamonica]

We will be testing a new version of the applet today from 1:00pm to 3:00pm.  The new version of the applet is located in a different place on the server, so if you bookmarked the control page instead of http://roboti.cs.siue.edu you will still get the old version (which we are keeping as a backup.)  The main page has links to the new applet and most of the changes are of a technical nature and so should not be visible except to the observant.  Here is a list of them for anyone who is interested.

1. The applet’s internal structure underwent a slight redesign.  It now supports different types of login screens and control screens.  We are using this to implement â€Ã...“hideâ€Ã, mode.  Hide mode is a mode that does not ask users to give their name and does not display names of other users to them at any point.  This will be particularly helpful when we are conducting demos that involve a younger audience who might be tempted to use inappropriate names. (Note: hide mode is located at http://roboti.cs.siue.edu/control/hide/ and works fine simultaneously with the regular mode)

2. The applet is webpage is now a single page for all three robots in all in both controller and watcher modes.  This was accomplished by sending parameters to the page to indicate the user’s choice.  For example â€Ã...“cTazâ€Ã, stands for control Taz in the following example: http://roboti.cs.siue.edu/control/index.html?cTaz  The applet required some small adjustment to facilitate this because it can no longer start connecting to the robot until the page has loaded.

3. The applet was packaged into a JAR file.  For those of you not familiar with java, a JAR file is just a ZIP file with *.class files and some meta-data in it.  Because the entire applet is in this single file it can be downloaded with one HTTP GET request.  This and the compressed nature of ZIP files cause a substantial reduction in load time at just a little cost to the convenience of the programmer  ;-)

4. A feedback page was added to allow users to send named or anonymous feedback about the robot.  (Note: This page is not available from the hide page because we don’t what it used irresponsibly.)
 

[Guest]

I just got done cruising around with the robot and it was alot of fun!  The applet worked great.  One element of feedback that I thought of... How about changing the color of the arrow when the robot is moving.  For example, if you press forward, the forward arrow would turn green until the movement is finished.  Also, I would like more than a minute to control the robot. I was trying to get Taz to go into the robotics lab.  Is he unable to enter that room or am I a bad driver :(

[Peter Motyka]

Hi, I am Anonymous

[R. Andrew Lamonica]

The robot moves on a grid.  That grid does not include the robot lab.  This makes it easy for me to start the robot because the first thing it notices is that it is far from the grid and so if I press forward it exits the room to get to a grid square. ;-)

[Jerry]

Hi Anonymous, I'm Incognito