ip PAI Department of Informatics Faculty of Science University of Fribourg Switzerland Installing ASEBA on Ubuntu in VirtualBox Robotics Project, Bachelor Course, 1 st Sem., Prof. Béat Hirsbrunner, Jan Kühni This HowTo document will explain how to install Ubuntu on VirtualBox and install ASEBA. We strongly recommend that you use Ubuntu to complete the exercises as this will guarantee consistency when running your code. Unfortunately, on some computers, the graphics card is not properly supported for 3D acceleration which means that you will have to consider installing Ubuntu as a second operating system on your computer instead. 1. Get VirtualBox for your Operating System You can get VirtualBox for your operating system from http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/downloads (Link on moodle). If you are running Linux, VirtualBox will most likely be available via your package manager. Follow the install instructions on the screen during the installation: 2. Download Ubuntu Linux Download the latest version of Ubuntu from http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop (Link on moodle). Be sure to download the 32-bit version.
3. Create a new Virtual Machine Launch VirtualBox and create a new virtual machine by clicking on new: Click on Next and type in Ubuntu as the name of your virtualization. VirtualBox should automatically set the type of the operating system to Linux and the version to Ubuntu: Click on Next and set the size of the main memory used according to your own preferences. Use at least 512 MB: In the next step leave everything as is - VirtualBox will create a new virtual disk: In the next step select VDI (Virtual Disk Image) and click on Next. If you have enough space on your hard drive you can now select Fixed Size to make your virtualization run faster. Otherwise select dynamically allocated. Click on Next and use the slider to set the size of your new virtual disk. The preset of 8.00 GB will be largely sufficient for installing Ubuntu and ASEBA. Now click on Next and then on Create. You have successfully created a virtual machine. Now it is time to install Ubuntu. 4. Installing Ubuntu on VirtualBox In the main Windows of VirtualBox you should now see your virtual machine called Ubuntu. Select it and click on Start: A wizard opens that will help you install the operating system. After clicking on next, you are prompted to choose the media containing the operation system you want to install. Click on the little folder icon next to Media Source and select the.iso file you have downloaded.
Click on Next and then on Start. The virtual machine will now launch the Ubuntu Installer from the.iso file. Select your preferred language and click on Install Ubuntu: Be sure to have a working internet connection. Then select Download updates while installing and click on Continue: You are now asked for the installation type. Choose Erase disk click on Install Ubuntu. Don t worry, this will only erase the virtual disk created by VirtualBox, your current operating system will not be affected: Click on Continue and then on Install Now. Select the correct time zone, keyboard layout and create a new user and password (be sure to write it down as you will need it later!):
After the installation is completed click on Restart Now and when prompted press Enter. Voila, your Ubuntu installation is up and running. 5. Updating your System Before you install ASEBA, make sure, your system is up to date. To update your system, you need an internet connection. You can set up your internet connection with the Ubuntu network manager. To start the network manager, click on the icon on your desktop: Once you have established an internet connection, you need to start the Update Manager which is available by clicking on the Ubuntu icon on the top left of your screen and typing update manager: Once the Update Manager is started, click on Install Updates and enter your password when prompted. Reboot Click on Restart Now after all updates have been installed.
6. Downloading and Installing ASEBA To install Aseba, you need to download the Debian Package for your Ubuntu version (most likely your Ubuntu version is 12.04 LTS (Precise) 32 bits) from https://aseba.wikidot.com/en:linuxinstall (Link on moodle) The Aseba Debian package will be downloaded to your Downloads folder in. Double click on the downloaded file and wait for the Ubuntu Software Center to open: Click on Install, enter your password and wait for the installer to complete. 7. Running ASEBA In order to launch the ASEBA development environment, you will need to download the ASEBA playground files which are available on moodle. Then click on the Ubuntu icon on the top left of the screen and Type aseba:
First click on Aseba Playground and select the playground file which you have downloaded from Moodle when prompted: A window should open looking like this: (the camera can be moved by holding down the control key for rotation and control and shift simultaneously to move the camera horizontally (left mouse button) and vertically (right mouse button): We are now ready to open ASEBA Studio which serves as the programming environment where we can write code for our robots. Click on the Ubuntu icon on the top left of the screen again and type ASEBA. Choose ASEBA Studio this time. It is important that the ASEBA Playground is open and running before you launch ASEBA Studio. When you open ASEBA Studio, it will ask you how you want to connect to the robots. Since we are in a simulation environment, we choose NetworkTCP with the default port 33333 on localhost and click on Connect:
We can now write our code in ASEBA Studio IDE. Note how there is a tab for each robot e-puck 1 to 4: Go give it a spin, type in: leftspeed = 400 rightspeed = 400 Click on Load all and then on Run all, epuck # 1 one should be moving forward at a constant pace.