RoboBuntu: A linux distribution for mobile robotics

During last years Linux started to climb the market of operating systems (OSs), and Ubuntu, derived by Debian OS, has become a good alternative to common OSs like Windows XP or Vista. The mobile robotics scientific community makes use of Linux based OSs to avoid the lack of stability that affects Microsoft OSs, especially when real time conditions must be satisfied. In this paper we present the Linux distribution RoboBuntu, acronym formed by the union of ROBOt and uBUNTU, to overcome the almost totally independent robotic software platforms existing today. The key idea behind RoboBuntu is the integration of different tools for mobile robotics into an embedded Ubuntu distribution. Another important characteristics of RoboBuntu is that every "hard step", like installation and configuration of OS and tools, is hidden to common users. In particular, RoboBuntu can be used either by students or researchers, as LiveCd, permanent installation on standard hard drive or, more interesting, on aUSB storage flash disk. © 2009 IEEE.