How to simulate Thymio? - Playground

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Aseba Studio

Thymio Simulator

This page explains how to use a simulated Thymio with Aseba Playground and Studio, VPL, Blockly or ScratchX. In other words this page explains how to program a virtual Thymio with Aseba Studio, VPL, Blockly or ScratchX using the simulator Aseba Playground. You don't need a real physical Thymio robot. The only thing you need is to download and install Aseba suite (version 1.6 - July 2018). Of course you can use a physical Thymio robot if you wish and all the programs you make will then be executed by both the virtual and the physical Thymio robot at the same time.

1. Aseba Playground and Aseba Studio or VPL.

1.1 Starting Aseba Playground and choosing a Thymio Playground

First, launch Aseba Playground by clicking on the corresponding icon.

A window will appear to let you choose a playground.

+ Click here to see path to the folder.

• Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\AsebaStudio\examples
• Mac OSX: /Applications/Aseba/Simulations/examples
• Linux: /usr/share/doc/aseba/example-scenarios

Several of them contain a Thymio, you can start with thymio.playground.
In fact all the existing maps (playground files) work with Studio or VPL, except "thymio-challenge-pack-web-bridge". Even this map can be converted to be suitable for Studio or VPL

+ click here to see how to make any playground file suitable for Studio or VPL.

• Use an editor (e.g Notepad++) to open the playground file.
• Replace the existing process command with this one:

<process command=":asebamassloader —once thymio-default-behaviours.aesl tcp:localhost;33333" />

• Save the new file with the name you choose, and extension playground
• You are ready

After you open a map, you will see a 3D environment with a virtual Thymio (the image below shows the thymio.playground map). It has the same API as the real Thymio, so aesl files are compatible between the two.

1.2 Starting Aseba Studio or VPL and connecting to the simulated Thymio

Once Aseba Playground is running, start Aseba Studio or Thymio VPL by clicking the corresponding icon.

or

In the connection window, a list of available targets is shown. There could also be targets on another computer if they are on the same network. Read the information display to find out.

With Thymio VPL, you will first get an error message that it cannot connect to Thymio; click OK and the connection window will appear.

Select a target, click connect, and your usual Aseba Studio or Thymio VPL window will appear. You can now program your virtual robot.

2. Aseba Playground and Blockly or ScratcX.

In order to program a virtual Thymio with Blockly or ScratchX, follow these steps:

2.1 Launch Aseba Playground
2.2 Select *thymio-challenge-pack-web-bridge.playground* map. This map will launch *Thymio Web Bridge* (on its own - you don't have to do anything), that allows connection to browser applications.
In the current version of Aseba (1.6 July 2018) the above map is the only one working with Blockly and ScratchX. But don't worry! You can make all the other existing playground files work with both Blockly and ScratchX.

+ click here to see how to make any playground file suitable for Blockly and ScratchX.

• Use an editor (e.g Notepad++) to open the playground file.
• Replace the existing process command with this one:

<process command=":asebahttp —autorestart tcp:localhost;33333" />

• Save the new file with a name you like, and extension playground
• You are ready

2.3 You can now launch Thymio Blockly or ScratchX.

3. Supported features

Because the simulated Thymio is in a limited, virtual environment, not all features are implemented. However, in order to be compatible with the real Thymio, all variables, functions and events are available. If you use them, you will not get a compilation error, however some events might never happen, some functions might do nothing and some variables might never change.

Below you will find a list of what is supported in the simulator. If you try to use a feature that is not yet implemented, a warning message will appear in the simulator.

+ Click here to see the current status of Thymio's native functions, local events and variables in the simulator.

variable	status
button.backward, button.left, button.center, button.forward, button.right	simulated, 0 by default, 1 when the respective buttons are clicked on with the mouse
prox.horizontal[0-6]	simulated, return values depending on what is around the robot in the simulator with the addition of noise
prox.ground.ambiant[0-1]	always 0
prox.ground.reflected[0-1]	simulated, return values depending on the colour of the ground with the addition of noise (the simulated environment is 2-dimensional, there can be no holes under Thymio and Thymio cannot be tilted or laid on one side)
prox.ground.delta[0-1]	simulated, returns the same as prox.ground.reflected[0-1]
prox.comm.rx, prox.comm.tx	always 0
acc[0-2]	always 0
temperature	always 220
motor.left.target, motor.right.target	default 0, can be defined by the user to set the motors' speeds. The simulated Thymio can move on a plane.
motor.left.speed, motor.right.speed	returns motor.left.target, motor.right.target
motor.left.pwm, motor.right.pwm	always 0
rc5.address	always 0
rc5.command	always 0
mic.intensity	always 0
mic.threshold	can be defined by the user but will have no effect
timer.period[0], timer.period[1]	can be defined by the user to setup the timer0 and timer1 events

function	status
prox.comm.enable(state)	does nothing
leds.circle(l0, l1, l2, l3, l4, l5, l6, l7), leds.top(r, g, b), leds.bottom.left(r, g, b), leds.bottom.right(r, g, b), leds.buttons(l0, l1, l2, l3) , leds.prox.h(l0, l1, l2, l3, l4, l5, l6, l7)	these LEDs are displayed as textures on the simulated robot
leds.rc(l), leds.temperature(r, b), leds.sound(l), leds.prox.v(l0, l1)	do nothing
sound.freq, sound.wave, sound.record, sound.replay, sound.play	do nothing
sd.open(x,status), sd.write(data,written), sd.read(data,read), sd.seek(position,status)	simulated

event	status
button.backward, button.left, button.forward, button.right, button.center	triggered when the user clicks with the mouse on one of the simulated Thymio's buttons
buttons	regular, 50 Hz
prox	regular, 10 Hz
prox.comm	never triggered
tap	triggered upon shock in the simulator or when the user clicks with the mouse on the simulated Thymio (but not on the buttons)
acc	regular, 16 Hz
mic	never triggered
sound.finished	never triggered
temperature	regular, 1Hz
rc5	never triggered
motor	regular, 100 Hz
timer0	triggered when timer 0 period expires, user-defined
timer1	triggered when timer 1 period expires, user-defined

+ Click here to see the current status of VPL events and actions in the simulator.

~ VPL Block	~ status
	implemented, triggered when the user clicks with the mouse on one of the simulated Thymio's buttons
	implemented, detects objects in the simulator
	implemented, detects ground colour in the simulator
	implemented, triggered upon shock in the simulator or when the user clicks with the mouse on the simulated Thymio (but not on the buttons)
	not implemented, never triggered
	implemented, the simulated Thymio can move on a plane
	implemented, displayed as textures on the simulated robot
	implemented, displayed as textures on the simulated robot
	not implemented, does nothing
	implemented, triggered when timer expires
	implemented
	implemented
	not implemented, does nothing
	not implemented, does nothing
	implemented, detects objects in the simulator
	implemented, detects ground colour in the simulator
	Thymio cannot be tilted in the simulator
	Thymio cannot be tilted in the simulator

4. Playground - Additional information

Sometimes it might be convenient to program without having a Thymio physically present and connected to a computer. However, as the Aseba Studio IDE enumerates native functions, local events and variables from the robot that is connected to it, a virtual instance of Thymio is needed in order to open a Thymio program or code a new behaviour for Thymio. Aseba provides a simulator, Aseba Playground, that can simulate different kinds of robots, including Thymio.

This document contains additional information on how to program robots in Playground, a multi-robot simulator bundled with Aseba.

Events

Local Events

Proximity sensors

The code following the instruction onevent ir_sensors will be executed at regular intervals, just after the distance to obstacles (prox) has been updated.

Camera

The code following the instruction onevent camera will be executed at regular intervals, just after the linear camera pixels camR, camG, camB have been updated.

Emit

emit name [arguments]

emit specifies that a given robot should send an event of type name to all other robots. The event may contain up to 32 arguments. Note that you cannot choose to which robot the event will be sent, since just like a radio signal, it is broadcast to all robots (see the example below in [args] for how you can address individual robots). Note also that the name of the event and the number of arguments have to be declared in the Global Events pane of Aseba Studio.

Internal Variables

id

An identifier whose value is unique for every robot.

source

The id of the robot from which the most recent event was received.

args

The arguments of the most recent event received on this robot.

Example: This example shows how events can target individual robots even if the signal was broadcast to all robots. The idea is to use a vector in which each position is allocated to a specific robot: when receiving the event a robot will read only a specific part of this vector.

The robot 1 sends a move-ahead event to robot 2, waits, then sends a move-ahead event to robot 3 and a stop to robot 2, waits, and finally sends a general stop message.

Code for robot 1:

# variables
var counter = 0

onevent ir_sensors

if counter == 10 then
    emit move [1,0]
end

if counter == 100 then 
    emit move [0,1]
end

counter += 1

Code for robot 2:

# events
onevent move
    if args[0] == 1 then
        leftSpeed = 400
        rightSpeed = 400
    else
        leftSpeed = 0
        rightSpeed = 0        
    end

onevent stop
    leftSpeed = 0
    rightSpeed = 0

Code for robot 3:

# events
onevent move
    if args[1] == 1 then
        leftSpeed = 400
        rightSpeed = 400
    else
        leftSpeed = 0
        rightSpeed = 0        
    end

onevent stop
    leftSpeed = 0
    rightSpeed = 0

leftSpeed, rightSpeed

Wheel speed. Choose 400 for slow motion.

colorR, colorG, colorB

The red, green and blue components of the robot's colour.

prox

The distance to obstacles perceived by the sensors. Note that noise produces fluctuations in the measurements. See schema here.

camR, camG, camB

Array of length 60. The red, green and blue components of values returned by the robot's camera.

energy

Integer: [0 9]. The robot's energy level.

Create your own environment

Playground allows specific simulation environments to be defined. For instance, the following code creates a box containing four robots:

<!DOCTYPE aseba-playground>
<aseba-playground>
    <color name="wall" r="0.9" g="0.9" b="0.9" />
    <color name="red" r="0.77" g="0.2" b="0.15" />
    <color name="green" r="0" g="0." b="0.17" />
    <color name="blue" r="0" g="0.38" b="0.61" />

    <world w="110.4" h="110.4" color="wall"/>

    <e-puck x="40" y="40"/>
    <e-puck x="40" y="60"/>
    <e-puck x="60" y="40"/>
    <e-puck x="60" y="60"/>
</aseba-playground>

Examples: Get here a model of the German Pavilion, 1929, designed by Mies van der Rohe. And here you get a general example with all features.