BowlerStudio assists you in every step of a robotics project from concept to completion. Tools enable users to:

The Nitty-Gritty Version

BowlerStudio Robotics development IDE is based on

BowlerStudio is a device manager, scripting engine, CAD package, and simulation tool all in one application. A user can develop the kinematic of an robot arm using the D-H parameters-based automatic kinematics engine. With this kinematics model, the user can then generate the CAD for new unique parts to match the kinematic model. The user can then export the model to an STL, and connect a Bowler 3d printer to BowlerStudio. The printer can print out the part (using the newly generated STL) while the user connects a DyIO and begins testing the servos with the kinematics model. When the print is done, the user can assemble the arm with the tested servos and run the model again to control the arm with Cartesian instructions. Once this is complete, the user can then attach a wiimote to train the robot arm through a set of tasks, recording them with the animation framework built into BowlerStudio. To be sure the arm is moving to the right place, the user can attach a webcam to the end and use OpenCV to verify the arm's position, or use the arm (in conjunction with the webcam with OpenCV enabled) to track and grab objects (IE "eye-in-hand" tracking).

Every step of this task can be performed from within BowlerStudio!

Let's go through the main features:

Scripting With Git

About scripts and Git

Scripts are bits of code that BowlerStudio can load and run. BowlerStudio allows you to open a local file and run it, but BowlerStudio is most powerful when the code lives on Github Gist (a code snippet hosting service from Github). Simply give BowlerStudio the URL for a Gist you want to load and execute. Gists can be selected and edited using the built in browser, or inline in another script using the Gist ID.

Java and Groovy

BowlerStudio can load and run scripts written in Java, Groovy, and Python. Which parser is used is determined by the file extension. Files that end in .java or .groovy will be run through the Groovy compiler. These Groovy scripts are compiled fully and run directly in the JVM. This means they will execute at full speed, just like a regular application.

Python

Python, on the other hand, by virtue of its structure, will generally execute much slower then Java. With the reduction in speed you get lots of flexibility and a clean and easy to understand syntax. The python code can also create and return objects to BowlerStudio (such as CAD CSG objects, or UI Tabs).

Return Objects

A script can return a few object types that will be handled by BowlerStudio: Objects of type "CSG" and "MeshView" will be added to the 3d display. If a transform is added to either of these and updated by a script the user can move an object in the 3d view. Objects of type "Tab" will be added to the Tabmanager and displayed in BowlerStudio. This is an easy way to make control panels or state displays and monitors. Objects of type "BowlerAbstractDevice" (or any subclass) will be added to the connections manager and made available to all other scripts. These can be external devices or virtual communication bus devices. A bowler Server/Client pair is the preferred mechanism for communication between scripts.

Device Access

All scripts are passed all connected devices by name when the script is run. The name associated with the device in the connections tab is the name to use in the script to access that device. A script can also create and return a device (EG to connect to a specific device in order to give that device a specific name). The device returned will be added to the list of available devices and be available to other scripts. A user can define their own devices to facilitate communication between scripts.

Bowler Devices

BowlerDevices (such as the Neuron Robotics DyIO) are devices that implement the Bowler Communication System. BowlerDevices are servers of features to applications. The DyIO, for example, is a server of microcontroller features. These devices implement a micro domain-specific language as a protocol. This language synchronizes the device with the application by building the communication system at runtime using a namespace/RPC system. As such, the device is treated as a collection of namespaces. Each namespace has a set of RPCs for communication, some synchronous (IE they are application initiated) and some asynchronous (IE device initiated). In addition, each RPC has full method introspection. This means that all parameters and datatypes (including how to pack and interpret all packets) are able to be queried over the communication system. A Library need only implement the core packet parser and every device will assemble its own communication layer live.

Cameras

Cameras can be connected to Bowler Studio using one of 3 supported drivers: OpenCV's native Java bindings are provided by installing OpenCV using your OS specific installer (unfortunately not available for Mac at this time). JavaCV is a meta-library that adds support for a wide range of camera device integrations and image processing options. This is a big project and integrated now with a full scripting system. CHDK-PTP-Java is a Java library that adds support for SLR Cannon cameras. CHDK is a camera OS that makes the cameras features available over USB, and the Java library makes those images and controls available to Java and or scripting engine.

Image processing

Image processing is provided be a variety of libraries included in this application. OpenCV and ARToolkit are some of the most widely used image recognition libraries available, and now you can use them directly from our scripting environment!

Kinematics Engine

The Bowler Kinematics engine is based on D-H parameters- the standard mathematical definition of kinematics chains. This standard simplifies the calculation process and allows us to run forward kinematics equations for arbitrary defined chains in real time. For inverse kinematics, a collection of kinematic engines are available for optimizing for speed and accuracy.

Real-Time validated

For applications where real time is required, there is no need to leave the Bowler OS. The Bowler Java stack has been validated as real-time capable when run on JamaicaVM (the real-time Java implementation). The Bowler Kinematics engine is run in a real-time loop for neurosurgery applications (Bowler and Java are fast and reliable enough for brain surgery!)

3D CAD

Users can write scripts using Java, Groovy or Python to generate CSG style CAD. This programmatic CAD engine JCSG was inspired by OpenSCAD, but implemented in pure Java with JavaFX visualizations. JCSG implements all basic shape generation and manipulation, using Java's library packaging and distribution for libraries of parts. Gist hosting of parts can also simplify sharing and loading of dependent libraries.

Virtualization

Virtual links

Virtual PID devices allow users to make applications that can be simulated with virtual links before ever connecting a real device. Users can also use the PIDLab to learn about designing and implementing PID controllers with a built in motor physics simulation.