2. What is URBI?
• Urbi is an open-source software platform to
control robots or complex systems in general. It
includes a C++ component library called
UObject that comes with a robot standard API to
describe motors, sensors and algorithms. Next to
UObject, you can use the urbiscript orchestration
script language to glue the components together
and describe high level behaviors, a bit like
python or LUA, but with embedded parallel and
event-driven semantics to make the job easier.
3. • Developed from 6 years out of the Cognitive
Robotics Lab of ENSTA ParisTech, and then by the
Gostai spin-off company. Urbi has a large
community and is now compatible with several
robots including Nao, Aibo, Spykee, Segway RMP,
Pioneer, Lego Mindstorm, Bioloid, Wifibot, Pekee
II, iCub (soon), and the Webots simulator.
4.
5.
6.
7. Goal
• The goal of Urbi is to help making robots
compatible, and simplify the process of writing
programs and behaviors for those robots. The
range of potential applications of Urbi goes
beyond robotics, since it has been successfully
used in generic complex systems, where parallel
and event-driven orchestration on multiple
agents is the rule.
8. URBI for WeBots
• URBI for Webots is URBI server for Webots,
meaning that it is an application, running as a
Webots controller, which acts as a URBI server,
whereas the program which actually controls
your simulated robot is either a URBI script or a
URBI client you have designed. It is easy to switch
from the simulation to a real robot using the
same URBI client or program.
9. AR.Drone
• Just when we thought that Parrot's iPhone-controlled airship
couldn't be any more of a blast, a gentleman named
Psykokwak (yes, really) has been hard at work on an
implementation of the URBI (Universal Robot Body Interface)
for the AR.Drone. And what's more, he's gone and written a
twenty-five line script that lets the thing to pick out -- and
shadow -- a red rubber ball. Pretty awesome, right? You'll need
an AR.Drone of course, as well as a computer (clients are
available for PC, Linux, and Mac), the interface of your choice
(joystick, keyboard, whatever) and of course -- for the current
demonstration -- a red rubber ball. For the technical nitty
gritty, check out the links below. But before you do make sure
you peep the demonstration video after the break.
