Planetary Rover Info

Virtual Bots Preliminary Tech Information

Rover Zeus by Greg Lyons

Hyper Bot Tech Information

At this point we will probably have 4 variations of the simulator.
1. A special 6502 version for Ted Kosans class on assembly language.
2. An Open 6502 emulator with flat 64k address space
3. A Simple Script version to allow non programmers or persons not wanting to deal with the 6502.
4. A special script version for teaching simple Geometry with an alternate for some Trig.

1. Ted Kosans 6502 assembly class.
The only port currently required is the motor drive port at 0xA050
Bit 0 = Right motor step
Bit 1 = Right motor direction
Bit 2 = Left motor step
Bit 3 = Left motor direction

2. Specs for the Open 6502 emulator version.
This version combines a commercial game engine and a 6502 microprocessor emulator. The emulator runs inside of the game engine and passes information to the simulator which drives the bots around. You have to program the 6502 in assembly language just as you would a real piece of hardware. The program is loaded by the simulator and run at full speed. There is a Forum to pass information about this data. Nothing is cast in stone yet we are still in the design phase so if you have comments pass them along.
The I/0 addresses are located at 0xFF00 and will include the following preliminary capabilities:

Output - Motor drive for 1 to 4 wheels, forward, back, stop
Output - Steering angle
Output - Sampler commands for air, radiation, soil

Input - GPS position
Input - Vector Direction
Input - Elevation difference in front of rover
Input - Object collision, range selectable
Input - Terrain range sensor
Input - Power level

3. Simple Scripter
This version will read a text file and execute instructions. Some of the commands are difined below.

FORWARD 32 // move forward 32 meters
BACK 32 // move backward 32 meters
STEER 20 // turn the wheels any angle from -45 degrees to +45 degrees, left to right
TURNTO 90 // turn the rover to face 90 degrees on the compass

4. Math Scripter
This version will incorporate the 3. Simple Scripter and allow a teacher to set up a course of travel.
The rover will stop and ask the student pertinent math questions in order to traverse the landscape.