“It
has never been easier to develop for embedded devices. Ubuntu Core on the cloud
is a perfect platform for test and dev; I can simulate my device online and
launch thousands of simulated devices on demand”
Device Engineering
Manager for Canonical Alexander Sack, commenting on the advantages of Ubuntu
Snappy Core
CES
(Computer Electronics Show) 2015 has made it clear that 2015 is not just the
Year of the Sheep, but also the year of IoT (Internet of Things) as noted in my
Geezam blog article entitled “Internet
of Things trend in smartphone-obsesed World at CES 2015.
Canonical,
known more for their Open Source Operating System Ubuntu, is now taking aim
squarely at the IoT (Internet of Things) with their ultra-small Ubuntu Operating
system, Snappy Ubuntu Core as reported in the article “Open
Source Ubuntu Core connects robots, drones and smart homes”, published
January 20, 2015 6:00 AM PST by Rich Trenholm, CNET
News.
Drones,
smart home appliances and yes Robots that run on ARMv7 and X86 thanks to the addition
of a HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) making it possible to work with both
system architecture. ARMv7 and X86 chipsets will all be able to use Ubuntu
Snappy Core in the future to function and also enable internet connectivity to
smartphones as noted in the Ubuntu Blog
IoT page.
Hence
you can develope and test IoT applications for hardware on an old PC without
having the actual Hardware on hand as noted in the article “Ubuntu
wants to be the OS for the Internet of Things”, published January 22, 2015
By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, ZDNet.
You
can in essence, with Ubuntu Snappy core, focus on the work of Software
developement as follows:
1.
Develop the I/O interaction between code
and Hardware
2.
Simulate how the code will work WITHOUT
the Hardware
3.
Compile, Load and Run their devices
All
this in an open Source Package that would other cost thousands of dollars in
commercial Grade Robotics Grade Simulation software. Best of all, if allows you
to free up your team, with one set
working on Software Development and another set on building the hardware
separately.
To
quote Canonical's VP of Device Engineering Victor Palau: “If you want to try it
on x86, a spare laptop or PC becomes your initial development board. Turn an
old PC into a home storage server or prototype your robot app on a spare laptop
or virtual machine”.
Ubuntu Snappy Core for
IoT – Why Ubuntu is excellent for Developing Drones and Robots for IoT
According
to their website, Ubuntu Core is surprisingly lightweight, requiring only a
600MHz Processor and 128 MBs of RAM on a computer, be it simulator or the Device
in question.
Ubuntu
Core itself uses 40MB of RAM on smartphones and Tablets, and Factory Reset and
system Rollback capabilities are possible so long as the devices has 4GB of SSD
(Solid State Drive) Flash to spare.
Already,
there is an example of the use of Ubuntu Snappy Core, the Erle-Copter
educational drone that demonstrates the results of the usage of the Open Source
Tools contained in Snappy Core. So yes, it’s excellent for developing not only
devices controllable via your smartphones and Tablets, but also Robots and
Drones.
This
is exciting to tinkerers who build anything from Drones, robots and smartphones
such as the members of the fledgling Girls Who Code Club , who can add Robotics
coding to their Coding Skills as noted in my blog article
entitled “Girls
Who Code Clubs Christmas eCard Project - Workshop for Software Coding Females
creating Evangelion Pilots passing on their knowledge”.
In
my mind, is a counterweight to Google's Project Ara, which is coming to the
Caribbean as Google seeks to jump-start creative work among Hardware and
software Developers for IoT compatible devices as noted in the article “Google
testing new smartphone project in the Caribbean”, published Thursday,
January 15, 2015 9:40 AM, The Jamaica
Observer.
Best
of all, like Google's Project Ara, its not restricted to smartphone and you can
develope IoT Applications for devices that you can publish on Ubuntu's App
Store, acording to VP of Internet Things at Canonical Maarten Ectors, quote: “The
app store for Internet things is now open on Ubuntu. Ubuntu makes it easy to
develop amazing apps for incredible devices on your laptop, test on the cloud
and publish straight to a global market of diverse devices”.
So
will you be getting Ubuntu Snappy Core? It's an interesting way to program
Drones, Robots and any device that you want to be connected to the Internet and
be remotely controlled using your smartphone via a Cloud Server.
Here’s
the link
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