Ubuntu Snappy Core for IoT – Why Ubuntu is excellent for Girls Who Code Developing Drones and Robots for IoT

“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

Ubuntu Blog IoT page.