leJOS 3D Robotics simulator like Microsoft's Robotics Studio

[dougnukem]

Hi!

I ordered a copy of Maximum Lego NXT back in December, and I finally received it yesterday (WooooHoo!). I played around with the iCommand API back in December and I really wanted to get started on some projects but then I got caught up in real work (got to pay the bills i guess).

Anyways, I can't wait to dig through this book and try out some of the projects. One thing I was wondering though, does anyone know of any open source project (preferably Java/leJOS based) that provides a simulation environment for NXT robots??

I'm looking for something Similar to Microsoft's Robotic Studio.

If not I was thinking of starting a project and use the leJOS API as the interface to the simulation. I think the tough part is going to be making a tool that lets you build the simulated Lego NXT robot models (but I guess its just blocks fitting into well-defined connections). Perhaps I could use LDra based objects and import them (is that even possible? I haven't even looked at LDraw at all)

I'm thinking of developing a 3D environment using java and OpenGL either through the high level scene graph based 3D engine jMonkey Engine

Or one of the lower level Java 3D API's:
LWJGL
JOGL

[bbagnall]

If you are thinking of trying this, I would double check that the physics engine of jMonkey will produce the results that you want. Say you prototype a simple robot with a caster wheel in jMonkey and the tires rotate on a flat surface - does the physics engine properly simulate movement based on the wheels contact with the surface?

Also, gears are potentially important with many LEGO robots. If you prototype some gears in jMonkey, do the teeth really lock and rotate other gears properly? If so it might be a worthwhile project to explore. You could probably find a lot of LEGO people from different areas (not just leJOS) who would want to collaborate on such an engine.