8 ms·

Gobot: A framework for robotics, physical computing, and the Internet of Things

103 points by SwellJoe 12y ago

schappim 12y ago
Has the hybrid group given up on Ruby (http://artoo.io/ http://artoo.io/) and moved on to go?
- Lambdanaut 12y ago
  Artoo is listed at the bottom of the Gobot page as a "sister project". It doesn't look like they're giving up; just expanding. There's also a Javascript version: http://cylonjs.com/ http://cylonjs.com/
  - deadprogram 12y ago
    That expresses it pretty well, I think. Thanks!
ricw 12y ago
This is very exciting. They seem get the core right. First impressions: 1. Use of a modern programming language that is designed to solve embedded / concurrent tasks and doesn't have a crazy (relative) footprint. Still curious what the actual footprint will be.. 2. Well designed set of official libraries (dc motors, servos, ..). Something most other open source projects lack or only have badly designed code (looking at you, arduino) 3. REST api as default. This makes it easy to integrate and communicate with, though the speed of the comm protocol will remain an issue for serial comms. 4. Testing and mocking seem to be part of the default api. 5. Good range of officially supported platforms. Though unfortunately arduino due is still missing (I use these mostly, so I'm biased) Very nice. Hope this succeeds.
- juliancheal 12y ago
  Arduino is supported the same most frameworks control the Arduino via Firmata, http://gobot.io/documentation/platforms/arduino/ http://gobot.io/documentation/platforms/arduino/ If you meant you wanted to run Go on the Arduino, then yes that's not possible. You could always run Gobot on a Raspberry Pi or Beaglebone to control the Arduino.
- deadprogram 12y ago
  Thank you, we appreciate that!
edran 12y ago
Currently the most used and supported framework is ROS[1][2], so I don't really see myself using this framework for either research or my hobby projects unless they implement an interface to talk and live with ROS itself... [1] http://www.ros.org/ http://www.ros.org/ [2] http://wiki.ros.org/Robots http://wiki.ros.org/Robots (Edit: formatting)
- Symmetry 12y ago
  Right, though I think it would be fairly straightforward to make a bridge. This is all pretty cool, but I think I'd really want something lower level than a RESTful API for streaming data from a SLS or a LIDAR to assemble into a costmap. I see they've included OpenCV in their system but no PCL[1]. I suppose that makes sense since you can just connect a camera to your OpenCV handler directly but when you're using pointcloads you're usually combining a bunch of them. Of course, when I create my Nim or Rust based robotics framework in my Copious Spare Time I'm going to use a pub-sub network where you can declare topics to be local-reliable (shared memory), global-reliable (tcp), or global-unreliable (udp-based). [1]http://www.pointclouds.org/ http://www.pointclouds.org/
  - Qworg 12y ago
    I like that vision of pub-sub, BTW. It helps to make things explicit (and bar access when it would conflict). I agree that PCL integration is a must for larger robot platforms. I'm unsure I understand their "platforms" argument - OpenCV as platform?
  - dom96 12y ago
    It's nice to hear that you are considering using Nim for this.
- ricw 12y ago
  ROS has an entirely different target group. You'll never be able to run ROS on a traditional robotics / IoT framework. We're talking KBs of RAM; kilo/megahertz CPU speeds; minimal power consumption.
jbeja 12y ago
Sorry for asking this but, what people mean with "Internet of Things"?
- fsloth 12y ago
  http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_Things http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_Things ?
saosebastiao 12y ago
Looks like a go clone of cylon http://cylonjs.com/ http://cylonjs.com/
- ricw 12y ago
  "Want to use Javascript to power your robots? Check out our sister project Cylon.js"
- juliancheal 12y ago
  CylonJS, Artooio, and Gobot are all written by the same people and their contributors https://github.com/hybridgroup/ https://github.com/hybridgroup/
scottefein12 12y ago
I've been playing with Gobot, really happy with it. Hybrid Group is VERY much behind it, lots of support. For all of you who got drones for Xmas, give it a go with Gobot.
stepanbujnak 12y ago
Isn't Go inherently bad for any embedded system because of its stop-the-world garbage collector? Or is that not a big deal in robotics?
denniscampbowl 12y ago
IoT can be confusing sometimes. And a lot of misconceptions. http://blog.echelon.com/echelon_blog/2014/04/we-recently-spoke-with-patrick-moorhead-founder-president-principal-analyst-and-paul-teich-cto-senior-analyst-of-moor.html http://blog.echelon.com/echelon_blog/2014/04/we-recently-spo...

103 points by SwellJoe 12y ago

schappim 12y ago

Has the hybrid group given up on Ruby (http://artoo.io/ http://artoo.io/) and moved on to go?

Lambdanaut 12y ago
Artoo is listed at the bottom of the Gobot page as a "sister project". It doesn't look like they're giving up; just expanding. There's also a Javascript version: http://cylonjs.com/ http://cylonjs.com/
- deadprogram 12y ago
  That expresses it pretty well, I think. Thanks!

ricw 12y ago

This is very exciting. They seem get the core right. First impressions: 1. Use of a modern programming language that is designed to solve embedded / concurrent tasks and doesn't have a crazy (relative) footprint. Still curious what the actual footprint will be.. 2. Well designed set of official libraries (dc motors, servos, ..). Something most other open source projects lack or only have badly designed code (looking at you, arduino) 3. REST api as default. This makes it easy to integrate and communicate with, though the speed of the comm protocol will remain an issue for serial comms. 4. Testing and mocking seem to be part of the default api. 5. Good range of officially supported platforms. Though unfortunately arduino due is still missing (I use these mostly, so I'm biased) Very nice. Hope this succeeds.

juliancheal 12y ago
Arduino is supported the same most frameworks control the Arduino via Firmata, http://gobot.io/documentation/platforms/arduino/ http://gobot.io/documentation/platforms/arduino/ If you meant you wanted to run Go on the Arduino, then yes that's not possible. You could always run Gobot on a Raspberry Pi or Beaglebone to control the Arduino.
deadprogram 12y ago
Thank you, we appreciate that!

edran 12y ago

Currently the most used and supported framework is ROS[1][2], so I don't really see myself using this framework for either research or my hobby projects unless they implement an interface to talk and live with ROS itself... [1] http://www.ros.org/ http://www.ros.org/ [2] http://wiki.ros.org/Robots http://wiki.ros.org/Robots (Edit: formatting)

Symmetry 12y ago
Right, though I think it would be fairly straightforward to make a bridge. This is all pretty cool, but I think I'd really want something lower level than a RESTful API for streaming data from a SLS or a LIDAR to assemble into a costmap. I see they've included OpenCV in their system but no PCL[1]. I suppose that makes sense since you can just connect a camera to your OpenCV handler directly but when you're using pointcloads you're usually combining a bunch of them. Of course, when I create my Nim or Rust based robotics framework in my Copious Spare Time I'm going to use a pub-sub network where you can declare topics to be local-reliable (shared memory), global-reliable (tcp), or global-unreliable (udp-based). [1]http://www.pointclouds.org/ http://www.pointclouds.org/
- Qworg 12y ago
  I like that vision of pub-sub, BTW. It helps to make things explicit (and bar access when it would conflict). I agree that PCL integration is a must for larger robot platforms. I'm unsure I understand their "platforms" argument - OpenCV as platform?
- dom96 12y ago
  It's nice to hear that you are considering using Nim for this.
ricw 12y ago
ROS has an entirely different target group. You'll never be able to run ROS on a traditional robotics / IoT framework. We're talking KBs of RAM; kilo/megahertz CPU speeds; minimal power consumption.

jbeja 12y ago

Sorry for asking this but, what people mean with "Internet of Things"?

fsloth 12y ago
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_Things http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_Things ?

saosebastiao 12y ago

Looks like a go clone of cylon http://cylonjs.com/ http://cylonjs.com/

ricw 12y ago
"Want to use Javascript to power your robots? Check out our sister project Cylon.js"
juliancheal 12y ago
CylonJS, Artooio, and Gobot are all written by the same people and their contributors https://github.com/hybridgroup/ https://github.com/hybridgroup/

scottefein12 12y ago

I've been playing with Gobot, really happy with it. Hybrid Group is VERY much behind it, lots of support. For all of you who got drones for Xmas, give it a go with Gobot.

stepanbujnak 12y ago

Isn't Go inherently bad for any embedded system because of its stop-the-world garbage collector? Or is that not a big deal in robotics?

denniscampbowl 12y ago

IoT can be confusing sometimes. And a lot of misconceptions. http://blog.echelon.com/echelon_blog/2014/04/we-recently-spoke-with-patrick-moorhead-founder-president-principal-analyst-and-paul-teich-cto-senior-analyst-of-moor.html http://blog.echelon.com/echelon_blog/2014/04/we-recently-spo...