Installation

ROS

For a basic installation of ROS components please refer to the ROS Installation

NAOqi

To install the Aldebaran NAOqi SDK, you need to be a registered NAO user.
Login and download it from here: https://community.aldebaran-robotics.com/

For the time of writing, we strongly recommend using the official 2.1.2 SDK version of C++ or Python.

However, a precompiled NAOqi binary is now included with the Webots 6.4.4 simulation software, so this will be covered in a different tutorial.

This section covers installing NAOqi on your local PC, to remotely control the Nao, however if you want to install NAOqi on the robot itself then you need to investigate cross-compiling ROS for the Nao.

In the following, we will setup the support for the Python SDK. Create a new directory and copy the downloaded tars inside. Please change the files and download destination according to where you placed your files.

$ mkdir ~/naoqi
$ cp ~/Downloads/naoqi-sdk-2.1.2.17-linux64.tar.gz ~/Downloads/pynaoqi-python2.7-2.1.2.17-linux64.tar.gz ~/naoqi
$ cd ~/naoqi

Execute the following commands to extract your SDK.

tar xzf naoqi-sdk-2.1.2.17-linux64.tar.gz
tar xzf pynaoqi-python2.7-2.1.2.17-linux64.tar.gz

Add the NAOqi library path to PYTHONPATH. e.g.

$ export PYTHONPATH=~/naoqi/pynaoqi-python2.7-2.1.2.17-linux64:$PYTHONPATH

To make this permanently available for every future terminal, edit your PYTHONPATH in your bashrc file too. e.g.

$ pico ~/.bashrc

Check the installation by executing NAOqi:

$ ~/naoqi/naoqi-sdk-1.12.3-linux32/naoqi

You should see an output similar to:

• Starting NAOqi version 1.12.3
  .
  NAOqi is listening on 0.0.0.0:9559
  .
  .
  NAOqi is ready...

Press CTRL-C to exit.

To verify your correct installation of the Python bindings, open a python shell and try to include the ALProxy from naoqi.

$ python
inside python shell
>>> from naoqi import ALProxy

If this commands fails, please double check that your extracted python SDK folder is correctly in your PYTHONPATH

ROS packages for the Nao robot

The necessary stack / metapackages are humanoid_msgs, nao_robot, and nao_extras. Only the first two are required to run on the robot while the nodes from nao_extras provide additional functionality on a remotely connected PC.

Several options are possible to install ROS:

1. Beginner: If you just begin learning about ros and NAO, you can try to install ROS on a computer and running some ROS nodes to connect to NAO, as explained in this link: ROS on a remote PC

2. Intermediate: You know ROS and really want to install it onto your NAO, then head to ROS directly on the robot. This is the recommended way to install ROS on Nao.

3. Advanced: So you're a hardcore programmer and really want to know all the "behind the scene" steps to compile and install ROS onto NAO, this link is for you: ROS from source for NAO. This is similar to the Intermediate approach, except all ROS packages are compiled by hand instead of using the robotpkg package manager.

Developing ROS in C++ for NAO

The easiest way is to use the VM as explained above in step 3: it is the official way to develop according to Aldebaran. It also helps you with third party dependencies as you can use Gentoo's emerge.

Now, you do not have to use the VM: you can use the official toolchain, but you might get blocked by using third party software that does not use CMake. Please follow the ROS compilation with NAO's toolchain tutorial.

Instructions for older ROS / NAO

If you are on an Atom NAO with NAOqi 1.14 and on Fuerte you can follow the:

• Ubuntu 10.04 instructions

• Ubuntu 12.04 instructions

If you have a Geode head, you can follow the:

• NAOqi 1.6 instructions with CTurtle

• NAOqi 1.10 instructions for Diamondback and above