The Urbi Software Development Kit

Urbi is an open source robotics software platform. It is cross-platform: it supports several robots (Gostai Jazz, LEGO Mindstorms NXT, Aldebaran Robotics’ Nao humanoid robot, Segway RMP, Pioneer 3-DX, Meccano’s Spykee, Bioloid…) and simulators (Webots, …). It runs on top of all the major operating systems. It features a C++/Java middleware called UObject to interface components such as motors, cameras, and algorithms; and an innovative scripting language, urbiscript, with built-in support for parallel and event-based programming. It is compatible with ROS, the Robotic Operating System.

This documentation is updated regularly on the Gostai Web site both as a PDF document, and as a set of HTML pages. You may also want to look at the documentation of the latest versions.

1 Introduction
1.1 Urbi and UObjects
1.2 The Big Picture
1.3 Urbi and urbiscript
1.4 Genesis
1.5 Outline
Contents
2 Getting Started
I  Urbi and UObjects User Manual
About This Part
3 Quick Start
3.1 UObject Basics
3.2 Using urbiscript
3.3 Conclusion
4 The UObject API
4.1 Compiling UObjects
4.2 Creating a class, binding variables and functions
4.3 Creating new instances
4.4 Binding functions
4.5 Notification of a variable change or access
4.6 Data-flow based programming: exchanging UVars
4.7 Data-flow based programming: InputPort
4.8 Timers
4.9 The special case of sensor/actuator variables
4.10 Using Urbi variables
4.11 Emitting events
4.12 UObject and Threads
4.13 Using binary types
4.14 Using hubs to group objects
4.15 Sending urbiscript code
4.16 Using RTP transport in remote mode
4.17 Extending the cast system
5 The UObject Java API
5.1 Compiling and running UObjects
5.2 Creating a class, binding variables and functions
5.3 Creating new instances
5.4 Binding functions
5.5 Notification of a variable change or access
5.6 Timers
5.7 Using Urbi variables
5.8 Sending Urbi code
5.9 Providing a main class or not
5.10 Import the examples with Eclipse
5.11 Run the UObject Java examples
6 Use Cases
6.1 Writing a Servomotor Device
6.2 Using Hubs to Group Objects
6.3 Writing a Camera Device
6.4 Writing a Speaker or Microphone Device
6.5 Writing a Softdevice: Ball Detection
II  urbiscript User Manual
About This Part
7 First Steps
7.1 Comments
7.2 Literal values
7.3 Function calls
7.4 Variables
7.5 Scopes
7.6 Method calls
7.7 Function definition
7.8 Conclusion
8 Basic Objects, Value Model
8.1 Objects in urbiscript
8.2 Methods
8.3 Everything is an object
8.4 The urbiscript values model
8.5 Conclusion
9 Flow Control Constructs
9.1 if
9.2 while
9.3 for
9.4 switch
9.5 do
10 Advanced Functions and Scoping
10.1 Scopes as expressions
10.2 Advanced scoping
10.3 Local functions
10.4 Lexical closures
11 Objective Programming, urbiscript Object Model
11.1 Prototype-based programming in urbiscript
11.2 Prototypes and slot lookup
11.3 Copy on write
11.4 Defining pseudo-classes
11.5 Constructors
11.6 Operators
11.7 Properties
12 Functional Programming
12.1 First class functions
12.2 Lambda functions
12.3 Lazy arguments
13 Parallelism, Concurrent Flow Control
13.1 Parallelism operators
13.2 Detach
13.3 Tags for parallel control flows
13.4 Advanced example with parallelism and tags
14 Event-based Programming
14.1 Watchdog constructs
14.2 Events
15 Urbi for ROS Users
15.1 Communication on topics
15.2 Using Services
III  Guidelines and Cook Books
About This Part
16 Installation
16.1 Download
16.2 Install & Check
17 Frequently Asked Questions
17.1 Build Issues
17.2 Troubleshooting
17.3 urbiscript
17.4 UObjects
17.5 Miscellaneous
18 Urbi Guideline
18.1 urbiscript Programming Guideline
19 Migration from urbiscript 1 to urbiscript 2
19.1 $(Foo)
19.2 delete Foo
19.3 emit Foo
19.4 eval(Foo)
19.5 foreach
19.6 group
19.7 loopn
19.8 new Foo
19.9 self
19.10 stop Foo
19.11 # line
19.12 tag+end
20 Building Urbi SDK
20.1 Requirements
20.2 Check out
20.3 Bootstrap
20.4 Configure
20.5 Compile
20.6 Install
20.7 Relocatable
20.8 Run
20.9 Check
IV  Urbi SDK Reference Manual
About This Part
21 Programs
21.1 Environment Variables
21.2 Special Files
21.3 urbi — Running an Urbi Server
21.4 urbi-image — Querying Images from a Server
21.5 urbi-launch — Running a UObject
21.6 urbi-ping — Checking the Delays with a Server
21.7 urbi-send — Sending urbiscript Commands to a Server
21.8 urbi-sound — Querying Sounds from a Server
21.9 umake — Compiling UObject Components
22 urbiscript Language Reference Manual
22.1 Syntax
22.2 Scopes and local variables
22.3 Functions
22.4 Objects
22.5 Enumeration types
22.6 Structural Pattern Matching
22.7 Imperative flow control
22.8 Exceptions
22.9 Assertions
22.10 Parallel and event-based flow control
22.11 Trajectories
22.12 Garbage collection and limitations
23 urbiscript Standard Library
23.1 Barrier
23.2 Binary
23.3 Boolean
23.4 CallMessage
23.5 Channel
23.6 Code
23.7 Comparable
23.8 Container
23.9 Control
23.10 Date
23.11 Dictionary
23.12 Directory
23.13 Duration
23.14 Enumeration
23.15 Event
23.16 Exception
23.17 Executable
23.18 File
23.19 Finalizable
23.20 Float
23.21 Float.limits
23.22 FormatInfo
23.23 Formatter
23.24 Global
23.25 Group
23.26 Hash
23.27 InputStream
23.28 IoService
23.29 Job
23.30 Kernel1
23.31 Lazy
23.32 List
23.33 Loadable
23.34 Lobby
23.35 Location
23.36 Logger
23.37 Math
23.38 Mutex
23.39 nil
23.40 Object
23.41 Orderable
23.42 OutputStream
23.43 Pair
23.44 Path
23.45 Pattern
23.46 Position
23.47 Primitive
23.48 Process
23.49 Profile
23.50 Profile.Function
23.51 PseudoLazy
23.52 PubSub
23.53 PubSub.Subscriber
23.54 RangeIterable
23.55 Regexp
23.56 Semaphore
23.57 Server
23.58 Singleton
23.59 Socket
23.60 StackFrame
23.61 Stream
23.62 String
23.63 System
23.64 System.PackageInfo
23.65 System.Platform
23.66 Tag
23.67 Timeout
23.68 Traceable
23.69 TrajectoryGenerator
23.70 Triplet
23.71 Tuple
23.72 UObject
23.73 uobjects
23.74 UValue
23.75 UVar
23.76 void
24 Communication with ROS
24.1 Ros
24.2 Ros.Topic
24.3 Ros.Service
25 Gostai Standard Robotics API
25.1 The Structure Tree
25.2 Frame of Reference
25.3 Component naming
25.4 Localization
25.5 Interface
25.6 Standard Components
25.7 Compact notation
25.8 Support classes
V  Urbi Platforms
About This Part
26 Bioloid
26.1 Introduction
26.2 Installing Urbi for Bioloid
26.3 First steps
27 Mindstorms NXT
27.1 Launching Urbi for Mindstorms NXT
27.2 First steps with Urbi to control Mindstorms NXT
27.3 Default layout reference
27.4 How to make its own layout
27.5 Available UObject Devices
28 Nao
28.1 Introduction
28.2 Starting up
28.3 Accessing joints
28.4 Leds
28.5 Camera
28.6 Whole body motion
28.7 Other sensors
28.8 Interfacing with NaoQi
29 Pioneer 3-DX
29.1 Getting started
29.2 How to use Pioneer 3-DX robot
29.3 Mobility modes
29.4 About units
30 Segway RMP
30.1 RMP
30.2 GSRAPI compliance
31 Spykee
31.1 Installing Urbi on the Spykee
31.2 Device list
31.3 Dynamically loaded modules
32 Webots
32.1 Setup
32.2 Using Urbi as a controller in your Webots worlds
32.3 Binding your own robots with Urbi for Webots
32.4 Built-in robots and worlds
32.5 Webots UObjects
VI  Tables and Indexes
About This Part
33 Notations
33.1 Words
33.2 Frames
34 Release Notes
34.1 Urbi SDK 2.7.1
34.2 Urbi SDK 2.7
34.3 Urbi SDK 2.6
34.4 Urbi SDK 2.5
34.5 Urbi SDK 2.4
34.6 Urbi SDK 2.3
34.7 Urbi SDK 2.2
34.8 Urbi SDK 2.1
34.9 Urbi SDK 2.0.3
34.10 Urbi SDK 2.0.2
34.11 Urbi SDK 2.0.1
34.12 Urbi SDK 2.0
34.13 Urbi SDK 2.0 RC 4
34.14 Urbi SDK 2.0 RC 3
34.15 Urbi SDK 2.0 RC 2
34.16 Urbi SDK 2.0 RC 1
34.17 Urbi SDK 2.0 beta 4
34.18 Urbi SDK 2.0 beta 3
34.19 Urbi SDK 2.0 beta 2
35 Licenses
35.1 BSD License
35.2 Expat License
35.3 gnu.bytecode
35.4 Independent JPEG Group’s Software License
35.5 Libcoroutine License
35.6 OpenSSL License
35.7 Urbi Open Source Contributor Agreement
36 Glossary
Index