Robot

A robot is an computer controled machine. In Robocode a robot is a tank that is programmed by the player in Java.

Simple robots extend Robot. They don't take damage when they hit walls, and can't use non-BlockingCall?s, CustomEvents or access files. They can use FiringAssistance (due to a bug, so can AdvancedRobots).

More complex robots extend AdvancedRobot.

-- JohnDoe

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I would argue that a simpler robot extends AdvancedRobot. It's much easier to get the job done with AdvancedRobot's. Should you need a blocking call for some reason you have them there too. -- PEZ

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Are there any competitive bots that extend Robot?

Yes, but they are few. There is an ExtendsRobot competition somewhere on this wiki, kawigi.robot.Girl, for example, also competes in the roborumble and meleerumble. I don't recommend starting out learning Robocode by trying to make a competitive Robot. -- Martin

Typically the source of such a question is competitions that don't allow AdvancedRobots (usually with the purpose of making it less likely that people will steal code from existing bots on the Repository). -- Kawigi

Ah, so you are suggesting that the anonymous poster is trying to cheat in a class competition. Lame. -- Martin

I'm not saying that's necessarily the case, just that it's quite possible :-) Also, I have been contacted before by a person asking if they could use some part of Girl in that kind of competition (although it was someone that I knew from another programming community). Girl is good partly because it is a robot designed without the limitations of an ExtendsRobot in consideration, and then adjusting things to allow for those limitations. -- Kawigi

Can I split movement into a Thread and use these Thread to create a non-blocking call? -- Nat

EDIT: I've try that, using following code:

public class RobotTest extends Robot 
{
	protected Thread move1;
	protected Thread move2;
	public void run()
	{
		move1 = new Thread(new Move1(this));
		move2 = new Thread(new Move2(this));
		move1.start();
		move2.start();
		while (true);
	}
}

class Move1 implements Runnable
{
	Robot robot;
	public Move1(Robot r)
	{
		robot = r;
	}
	public void run()
	{
		while (true)
		{
			robot.ahead(100);
		}
	}
}

class Move2 implements Runnable
{
	Robot robot;
	public Move2(Robot r)
	{
		robot = r;
	}
	public void run()
	{
		while (true)
		{
			robot.turnLeft(360);
		}
	}
}

But when it being call for the second time, I've got this exception:

Exception in thread "Thread-57" robocode.exception.RobotException: You cannot take action in this thread!
	at robocode.peer.RobotPeer.execute(Unknown Source)
	at robocode.peer.RobotPeer.move(Unknown Source)
	at robocode.peer.proxies.BasicRobotProxy.move(Unknown Source)
	at robocode.Robot.ahead(Unknown Source)
	at nat.robot.Move1.run(RobotTest.java:30)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Exception in thread "Thread-58" robocode.exception.RobotException: You cannot take action in this thread!
	at robocode.peer.RobotPeer.execute(Unknown Source)
	at robocode.peer.RobotPeer.turnBody(Unknown Source)
	at robocode.peer.proxies.BasicRobotProxy.turnBody(Unknown Source)
	at robocode.Robot.turnLeft(Unknown Source)
	at nat.robot.Move2.run(RobotTest.java:46)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

Do you know why? -- Nat