Mobile Robot Project
			
			    Don Hopkins


I am developing a robot simulator for the Mobile Robot Project on the
Computer Vision Lab's Symbolics 3600 Lisp Macine, "Oin." It is written
in Lisp, using message passing, or flavors.

The robot simulator builds a representation of an environment in which
you can test the robot, and then simulates the functions of robot
hardware, such as the Polaroid ultrasonic range finders, the drive, and
the steering mechanisms. The simulated functions interact with the
simulated environment in the way that the real functions should
interact with the real world. This allows the programmer to implement
and test algorhythms for controlling the robot, and even to test out
potential hardware modifications.

Instead of trying to develop software on the actual robot itsself,
which could prove to be extremely difficult, the programmer can use the
programming environment of the Lisp Machine to write, test, and debug
software, and when it is working, the software can be transported to
the actual robot, where it should run with little or no modification.

The Lisp Machine can display a graphic representation of the robot's
environment, its state, and even its internal representation of the world.
This makes debugging much easier, because it lets the programmer "see
inside of the robot," and see the environment in which his program is
operating.