MiniBot Platform

This repo is a test python implementation of MiniBot. Original repo can be found here. This is a refactored version.

Minibot is a modular robotics kit meant for children and students from age 6 - 18, developed in partnership with DaVinci Robotics. This repository contains sample scripts that allow users to run simple algorithms on their minibot, as well as a simple web app that is a simple interface from which users can control the minibot and send custom scripts.

This repository is currently in development.

Software resources:

• Tornado
• Google Blockly
• Adafruit RPi libraries (TCS34725)

Contributing to the Repository

Before working with the code, install pylint to use the Python linter.

pip install pylint

To run pylint on the code, run the following line from the root directory.

pylint minibot

Run pylint before committing or making pull requests so that code quality can be maintained.

Dependencies

Developer Dependencies

Install the dependencies in requirements.txt and requirements-rpi.txt. From the root directory, run the following line in terminal.

pip install -r requirements.txt

Then run the following line.

./init_gui.sh

If this does not work, run

chmod u+x init.sh

to give persmission to run the init file.

Dependencies on the Rapsberry Pi

When SSH'ed into a minibot's Raspberry Pi, make sure to install the requirements for the RPi.

pip install -r requirements-rpi.txt

This is not necessary on your personal laptop or computer when developing, but is necessary to run the hardware on the minibot when testing.

Run the BaseStation

After all dependencies are successfully installed, you can run the BaseStation on your computer and start working with the minibot.

The BaseStation is the intermediary that manages information flow between the minibot and hardware to the software and GUI. BaseStation runs on cs-minibot/gui/main.py and is a simple web application that runs on HTTP.

To run the BaseStation, run the following line in your terminal from the root directory of this repo.

./start_gui.sh

To quit the BaseStation, run the following line.

pkill -f main.py

where main.py is the relative location of the gui/main.py file.

Go to any browser on your computer and go to localhost:1234/gui to see the GUI in action. If you are having trouble running the previous line, make sure that python3 is installed. You can check this by typing python3 in your terminal.