Using Darwin-OP
I am authoring the following tutorials to help 1st time users with using the Darwin-OP robots. The following tutorials will be helpful for to get started with the Darwin-OP, running simple programs.
If you are not aware what the Darwin-OP is and what to know some general knowledge googling will return a lot of results.
The Darwin-OP has a computer for itself. Well you cant browse the internet and play games but there are a lot of other cool stuff you can do like program the Darwin to do things, walk etc… You will learn some of the stuff as you follow the tutorial.
The 1st thing you should know is that the Darwin-OP has a Ubuntu operation system(OS) on it. The Darwin-OP usually comes with Ubuntu 9.10 OS installed on it. But in the DASL lab its quite common that the Darwin-OP's OS is updated. It matters as to which version the Darwin-OP has, since the 9.10 version has a GUI(Graphical User Interface), which means you can use your mouse to click on icons and use GUI to write programs. But you really dont need to use the GUI much. You will mostly be using the Terminal to run your programs. If you have higher versions you might not have a GUI which means after you power on the Darwin you will open into a terminal and you have to navigate around with the terminal.
To run programs on the Darwin-OP you need to be the sudo user, which means you need to know the administrative password to run programs.
If there is any information you need about the Darwin-OP refer to the Robotis Website
Wiring for the Darwin-OP
There are 3 things that you need to wire to the Darwin-OP
- The power cord that comes with the Darwin. Make sure you use the right one.
- A monitor : The Darwin has a HDMI port, you can connect any monitor with the HDMI cable.
- A keyboard : Any USB connectable keyboard for typing
Optionally you can also connect a mouse with to control. (Of course, if you have Ubuntu 12.04 etc, the Darwin-OP will boot into the terminal and you will not need a mouse at all )
1) Once you have connected all the required connections, you can power on the Darwin. (The switch behind the Darwin). After the Darwin boots up it will request for the username and password. You will need to know it before you can use the Darwin. Ask your labmates for these details, Feel free to also email me for the current user name and passwords, but they might change in due time.
2) After you log-in you will be able to look around the files inside Darwin's computer. If you had Ubuntu 12.04 you will obviously have a terminal that will open up and you can cd across different directories and check them out.
3) The most important directories are present inside the /darwin/Linux/project directory. you can cd into it by typing the following in the terminal.
cd /darwin/Linux/project
Every directory/folder that you see in here is probably a program that you can run.
4) A good place to start is by looking into at the tutorials.
cd /darwin/Linux/project/tutorial/