# Ruby & Robotics? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [August 18, 2008, 3:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-robotics/146110 "2008-08-18T03:53:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Michael\_Craig](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Michael\_Craig](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Craig)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2008, 3:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-robotics/146110/1 "2008-08-18T03:53:43Z")
Hello all, Does anybody know if there are any good implementations of Ruby in basic robotics? I want to learn some robotics (basic ground-level stuff, i.e. how to control servos from a computer with ruby) and I don’t really want to do it in Java when I know Ruby and love it so much :). Also, anybody know a good place to start for getting into that kind of stuff? Thanks, Mike ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Craig](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Michael\_Craig](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Craig)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2008, 4:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-robotics/146110/2 "2008-08-18T04:35:48Z")
Michael Craig wrote: > Hello all, > Does anybody know if there are any good implementations of Ruby in basic > robotics? I want to learn some robotics (basic ground-level stuff, i.e. how > to control servos from a computer with ruby) and I don’t really want to do > it in Java when I know Ruby and love it so much :). Also, anybody know a > good place to start for getting into that kind of stuff? > > Thanks, > Mike This is something related I came across before. Though as much as I like Ruby, it’s not really the right tool for the job. [http://rad.rubyforge.org/](http://rad.rubyforge.org/) ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Craig](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Michael\_Craig](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Craig)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2008, 4:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-robotics/146110/3 "2008-08-18T04:50:25Z")
Michael Craig wrote: > Hello all, > Does anybody know if there are any good implementations of Ruby in basic > robotics? I want to learn some robotics (basic ground-level stuff, i.e. how > to control servos from a computer with ruby) and I don’t really want to do > it in Java when I know Ruby and love it so much :). Also, anybody know a > good place to start for getting into that kind of stuff? In general, no, but at a RubyConf a few years ago (2003, I guess), Shashank D. showed off controlling a Lego Mindstorms assembly using Ruby. [http://rubyforge.org/projects/lego-mindstorms/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/lego-mindstorms/) If you google a bit you’ll find more links about Ruby and Mindstorms – James B. [www.happycamperstudios.com](http://www.happycamperstudios.com) - Wicked Cool Coding [www.jamesbritt.com](http://www.jamesbritt.com) - Playing with Better Toys [www.ruby-doc.org](http://www.ruby-doc.org) - Ruby Help & Documentation [www.rubystuff.com](http://www.rubystuff.com) - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Craig](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Michael\_Craig](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Craig)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2008, 8:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-robotics/146110/4 "2008-08-18T08:36:07Z")
On Sun, Aug 17, 2008 at 6:47 PM, Michael Craig [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Hello all, > Does anybody know if there are any good implementations of Ruby in basic > robotics? I want to learn some robotics (basic ground-level stuff, i.e. how > to control servos from a computer with ruby) and I don’t really want to do > it in Java when I know Ruby and love it so much :). Also, anybody know a > good place to start for getting into that kind of stuff? If you already have a java api to your hardware controller, you can write your program in jruby and use the java calls martin ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Craig](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Michael\_Craig](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Craig)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 9:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-robotics/146110/5 "2008-08-25T21:54:54Z")
Michael Craig wrote: > Hello all, > Does anybody know if there are any good implementations of Ruby in > basic > robotics? I want to learn some robotics (basic ground-level stuff, i.e. > how to control servos from a computer with ruby) and I don’t really want > to do it in Java when I know Ruby and love it so much :). Also, anybody > know a good place to start for getting into that kind of stuff? > > Thanks, > Mike Actually, real robotic systems need to be real-time systems, running on Real-time operating systems such as the Linux + Xenomai real-time extension patch. But, for testing certain alghoritms, I think ruby could act as Matlab, for prototyping. But you need to have in mind that you will need to port the final alghoritm to C ou C++, since, usually, real-time system APIs are written in those languages… Writing realtime systems in languages such as Ruby or Java (both have garbage collector) is not reliably (actually it is impossible in Ruby, currently, as far as I know). Good luck! Rodrigo.