URBI Forum

Hi everyone! Happy Saint Patrick's day!
My name is Gilles, & I'm doing a final year project in the Trinity College of Dublin about AIBO & the Wi-Fi.
I managed to connect my AIBO to an infrastructure network, so that I can ping/telnet/AEP/open the webpage him. I also tried R-Code via the memory stick, & ActionPlayer.
I've been told a lot about URBI (apparently, it has a countless number of fans ), & I would like to know if this langage would allow me to do what I am asked for my project.
I need AIBO to find the neighbour Wi-Fi signals (infrastructure or ad-hoc), & by any way (barking, lights on the head, or even a simple System.out.println("Wi-Fi network found');) giving me as many informations about it as possible (as for example ESSID, signal strength, and so on...). After, if AIBO & URBI can do this, I'm sure it won't be too hard to make AIBO walk to the signal origin.
If AIBO/URBI can't do this, than my project could be limited to find the infrastructure netork it is connected to, and do the same as above.
My question is simple: can URBI do this?
Many thanks in advance, I'm available (& very reactive, even on Saint Patrick's day) for any comment.
Have a nice day.

PS: for the French people / pour les fran?ais, j'ai post? la m?me question ici.

Hi,
You can't do that in URBI right now. But as soon as someone finds how to do it in open-r we can add the feature in the next urbiserver release.

Thanks for your answer, bearclaw.
So, you are 100% sure that URBI can't do it?
I guess I'll have to look again at the Open-R documentation...
Would anyone know any other language that might do it (or any other layer on Open-R), by any chance?

Hi TCD,

I know OPENR quite well, and I don't think what you request is available. Also, the way network connecting is done (reading a WLANCONF.TXT file) is completely static. You can't probe for available SSID around and switch to another one for example. The OPENR acrhictecture is, as a general remark, a very static one, including for code execution, and that's no good.

Let's wait for new URBI-enabled robots, like the one of Aldebaran Robotics, with a full linux support on it, and life will be much much simpler!

Cheers,
JC

I've found a way to get the signal strengh in OPENR, via the undocummented EtherDriverGetWLANStatisticsMsg parameter of the ERAD_GetWLANStatistics function (wow, that's a convivial, user-friendly interface )

I'm going to add this to URBI and post a 0.9.8c version for you to use in the "unstable" section.

I'll announce the new release here only, keep an eye on this post.

Sincerely,
JCB

OK, it's done. You can get the latest version 0.9.8c here:
http://www.urbiforge.com/unstable

You have now:

wlan.signal (between 0 and 1)
wlan.channel
wlan.ssid
wlan.stationName
wlan.noise

Enjoy!
JCB

OK, I've just read all of your messages.
I don't know what to say...
Hum...
Thanks jcbaillie!
I'll test it as soon as possible. I might ask other questions soon, if I experiment problems with URBI in general.
I'll keep you in touch with my work.
Thanks again.
ADD: I've put the results of my tests here (French, sorry ).

Hello JCB,

I can not find the 0.9.8c built at the unsatble page nor at sourceforge.
Do you plant to integrate this again in the future releases again?

regards

Hi Billi,

Yes it will be added in RC2. Meanwhile, someone posted a UObject to do exactly what you want here:
http://allonlinux.free.fr/urbi/wifi.cpp

Just use it in plugged mode and you should be ok.

Let me know if this helps,
JCB

Hello JCB,

Thank you for the post. Maybe RC2 is out before I get my compiler running (see this thread)

regards
Billi28