Note: Screenshots of everything, on both Windows and Linux, will come shortly.
What You Need
To start installing Robots Anywhere, your system MUST meet the following requirements:
Operating System: Any capable of running Java
Java Version: Sun Java 6 or higher; other Java runtime environments are unsupported but may work. Please contact us if you wish to help us test on other runtimes!
Disk Space: 3 Megabytes for Server
Computer Screen Resolution: 1280x1024 minimum recommended; the program will run on any resolution but display issues may exist.
Android Version: 1.5 or Higher; to use serial communication or remote dialing, the phone must be rooted.
Phone Version: Any with Bluetooth support; for serial version, we currently support HTC Dream (G1) and HTC Magic (G2) and compatible phones, as well as the Motorola Droid. Your phone must have an audio jack, and some high resolution cameras on Android 10+ devices may not be supported until Antbot 2.0.
Step 1: Download Binaries
Start by downloading the server binaries to your hard drive. For the server, this is all you need to do! Afterward, simply run the JAR file using your Java runtime, and the program will start.
Step 2: Set Up Application Installer
The client APK is no longer made available on Google Play due to API restrictions. Please see the product page for any Robots Anywhere product, or contact support to download the APK. Antbot 2.0 will support Google Play again.
Step 3: Configure robot.conf
Robot.conf is the main configuration file for the robot. It resides on the phone's SD card, and must either be edited through a text editor on the phone (we are developing one for this purpose) or by using the "RA Config" icon that will be installed along with the RA NAVCOM application. An example file will be provided: to disable any setting, just use # in front of it, this will use the default.
Before the robot can be used, the following lines in robot.conf MUST be set:
server1 = X.X.X.X where X.X.X.X is the IP address or hostname of the server you want the robot to connect to
id = Robot1 where Robot1 can be any name, which is then displayed on the server
Bluetooth information also needs to go in robot.conf -- either use the MAC address of the Bluetooth device, or enter 0 for autodetect.
More information on using robot.conf can be found here.
Alternatively, you can use AudioSerial, which is the currently supported method of communicating with modern phones.
Supported AudioSerial baud rates are 2400 and 4800; your phone may have different audioserial performance than the reference implementation.
Invert AudioSerial: required by some phones - hardware dependent and generally not documented by phone manufacturers; use trial and error here.
AudioSerial Delay: 3 default, may need to go as high as 10 (milliseconds) for some phones.
In general, phones with higher quality audio systems will support 4800 baud and shorter delays.