Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Robots, Robots, Robots

Ever wondered what it would be like to do that robot soccer thing? Get an AIBO and make it kick stuff?
I love this kind of nifty stuff, but I couldn't find a decent toolkit that was free enough for me to start developing in. Or it was written in something I didn't know.

Then, I found Robocode. It's aimed at people who don't know how to code, with the aim of teaching them the fundamentals of Java. You have tanks that basically have to destroy each other. It's fiendishly easy to get a start in, but not so easy to do well in. Right now, after having little success with individuals (weave, damn you, weave!) I'm having a crack at teams.
Though I'm making no progress, I'm thinking about the problems better.
I'm thinking about what was taught to me in the Army cadets, about flocking boids, about animal hunting patterns, about learning from your mistakes and about everything.
Stay tuned for some productive code!

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