rcx.josx.robotics
Class Activity

java.lang.Object
  java.lang.Thread
      rcx.josx.robotics.ActivityBase
          rcx.josx.robotics.Activity

All Implemented Interfaces:

java.lang.Runnable

public abstract class Activity
extends ActivityBase

An activity that operates in coordination with other activities. Only one activity can run at a time. When an activity of a higher priority wants to run any activities of a lower priority will be suppressed. Furthermore, if there is already an activity of the same or lower priority running, that activity will be stopped.

This is essentially an alternative way of implementing a Behavior or Subsumption architecture. It is totally distinct from the Behavior and Arbitrator classes and does not use either.

It works like this:

1. This class should be sub-classed and the action() method should be implemented to perform the desired action. That may be to respond to a change in a sensor, or it may be to cause the robot to wander around (or anything else). This method should call one of the pause() methods occasionally. In particular if it wants to sleep or yield control it should call pause() instead of sleep() or yield() or wait().
2. An application should create instances of the sub-classes as needed, set their priorities by calling setPriority() and then start them by calling start().
3. If an activity wants to run it should call activity.iWantToRun(), or another class could call it.
4. If there is no higher priority activity running when an activity become runnable, any activities of the same or lower priority will be suppressed. In addition, if an activity was not already running the action() method will be called in its own thread.
5. If an activity is already running when it is run again, pause() throws an InterruptedException. It can do what it wants with that. An activity that is run when a sensor is activated might want to restart action() from the beginning for example. A background activity might just ignore it.
6. If a higher priority activity gets to run, pause() on this activity will throw a StopException. This should not be caught so that the action() method exits with that exception.

Note. A background activity should ensure that something makes it runnable if it is stopped. The easiest way to do that is to override resetRunnable() to call iWantToRun().

Example:

 /**
  * When sensor one is pressed, run the motors in some pattern.
  */
 class ControlMotors extends Activity implements SensorListener
 {
        public ControlMotors()
        {
                Sensor.S1.addSensorListener(this);
        }
 
        /**
         * Called when the sensor state changes (in some thread other than this one).
         */ 
        public void stateChanged(Sensor s, int old, int nu)
        {
                if (old > nu)
                        return;
 
                iWantToRun();
        }
     
        /**
         * Encapsulates the actual activity we want to perform.
         *
         * @exception StopException if we are forcibly stopped.
         */
        protected void action() throws StopException
        {
                boolean finished = false;
                
                // Sit here until we are finished or we are forcibly halted.                                    
                while (!finished)
                {
                        try
                        {
                                // spin
                                Motor.C.forward();
                                Motor.A.backward();
                                
                                // Wait for 0.25 secs, may throw InterruptedException
                                pause(250);
                                
                                // Forward
                                Motor.A.forward();
 
                                // We are finished
                                finished = true;
                        } catch (InterruptedException ie)
                        {
                                // pause() was interrupted. Re-start from the beginning
                        }
                }
        }
 }
 
 

Author:

Paul Andrews

Nested Class Summary

Nested classes/interfaces inherited from class java.lang.Thread

java.lang.Thread.State, java.lang.Thread.UncaughtExceptionHandler

Field Summary

Fields inherited from class java.lang.Thread

MAX_PRIORITY, MIN_PRIORITY, NORM_PRIORITY

Constructor Summary

Activity()

Method Summary

void	run() Thread entry point.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Thread

activeCount, checkAccess, countStackFrames, currentThread, destroy, dumpStack, enumerate, getAllStackTraces, getContextClassLoader, getDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler, getId, getName, getPriority, getStackTrace, getState, getThreadGroup, getUncaughtExceptionHandler, holdsLock, interrupt, interrupted, isAlive, isDaemon, isInterrupted, join, join, join, resume, setContextClassLoader, setDaemon, setDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler, setName, setPriority, setUncaughtExceptionHandler, sleep, sleep, start, stop, stop, suspend, toString, yield

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

equals, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

Activity

public Activity()

Method Detail

run

public final void run()

Thread entry point. Never returns.

Specified by:

run in interface java.lang.Runnable

Overrides:

run in class java.lang.Thread