Getting down and dirty: device-level programming using the Real-Time Specification for Java

The Real-Time Specification for Java (RTSJ) provides many mechanisms for "real-world" programming, including the ability to express timeliness constraints for computations, respond to asynchronous events, and access physical memory. As a demonstration of the realworld capabilities of the RTSJ, we implemented an autonomous mobile robot programmed solely in Java. In this paper, we describe the implementation of this robotic control software, as well as other examples of device-level software in the Java programming language.