Aseba is an open-source project providing a set of tools that
allow beginners to program robots easily and efficiently.
Technically speaking, Aseba is an event-based architecture for
distributed control of mobile robots. It targets single- or
multi-processor robots and simulations. The core of Aseba is a
lightweight virtual machine tiny enough to run on
microcontrollers. With Aseba, we program robots in a
octave-style scripting language using an integrated development
environment. This environment provides several features
important for robotics, such as real-time inspection of
sensor/actuator data, integrating plotting, on-typing
compilation, distributed debugging, and instant code upload to
the robot. Compared to alternatives (for instance Arduino and
Lego Mindstorm), Aseba focuses on text-based programming but
takes advantage of the tight integration between the environment
and the robot to provide an interactive robot programming
experience.
Aseba stems from research in miniature mobile robotics, in which
small robots with multiple microcontrollers have risen
architectural questions (see papers under links). In addition,
Aseba has found a natural application in educational robotics
with the Thymio low-cost robot. We have also demonstrated Aseba
in simulation and on a group of e-puck robots. Aseba integrates
with D-Bus and ROS, allowing access to microcontrollers from
high-level languages.
I am the initiator and maintainer of the Aseba technology and
one of the most active contributors. I propose to present a talk
with the following content:
* Genesis, why did we develop such a thing.
* Technical overview, with discussion of the design choices.
* Presentation of the Aseba in the robotic-research context.
* Live demonstration of Aseba in the educational context using
the Thymio robot.
* Future directions.
* Conclusion and question answering.
I started developing Aseba as part of my PhD work in the Mobots
research group at EPFL. Currently, a community comprising
members of the Mobots group, of the mobsya association, of the
ASL at ETH Zürich and other individuals maintain and further
develop Aseba.