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From Tuxisalive
Here is the main entry of Tux Droid Suite development project, an Open Source Project dedicated to create smart-companion features for PC-controlled robots. The Open Source aspect is relative to the whole code including software and firmware issues.
Contents |
Smart-companions
Smart-companion and robot-companion terms cover a wide range of definitions and concepts from standalone robots to 3-D avatars on screen. About companions, many research projects are on the way, high-end technical demonstrators are existing and some affordable products are now available (see smart companions). The project retains common aspects of these concepts: proposing to the user a company (presence) demonstrating interactive smart-behaviors helping him to control his digital environment. The project focuses on a specific organization of the smart-companion system:
- a robot physical device looking : the "companion"
- a PC based (embedded or not) intelligence: the "smart-behavior"
Project purposes
Contrasting with research approaches, the project trends to be pragmatic. Based on an existing device, it plans to discuss, to develop and to evaluate firmware and software strategies to create a presence with intelligent man-machine interaction. Some result would be the definition of a trade-off architecture in terms of hardware, firmware and software. The project uses (but is not restricted to) Tux Droid as companion. This small robot looks like Tux the official Linux mascot, somewhere symbol of open source philosophy. Tux Droid is a product of Kysoh which is currently the main private contributor of this project. It settles the project with a working open source hardware, firmware and software basis.
Information structure
- "Development issues" covers hardware, firmware, middleware and application sides of the software suite.
- "How it works" articles provides basic explanation of the concepts used in the project.
- "How to ?" articles provide basic receipts for using software and firmware.
- "Miscellaneous Topics" lists articles about development and perspectives issues
Project history
In March 2007, a first software architecture (V1) dedicated to Linux was developed and evaluated by end-users. Since April 2008, development of a second version (V2) of the whole software started. It is a deep rewriting taking advantages from experience accumulated by the team. The current software is now built around a server providing companion features through HTTP requests. It runs on Linux, Windows (and soon MacOSX); moreover it makes Tux Droid able to run over the net.
- Developer documentation about current software and firmware is available at Tux Droid Suite development wiki. A community portal dedicated to Tux Droid users is available at Users Community Portal
- Wiki articles relative to software V1 can be found at v1 Tux Droid development wiki. Non deprecated articles have been reused in the current wiki. The community portal can be found at Community Portal
