This repository contains my latest attempt at a ROS2 <-> Segway Loomo bridge Android application.
The Loomo is a pretty nice piece of hardware, but the onboard processing capabilities leave a lot to be desired. Offloading sensor processing tasks to another computer makes Loomo a lot more capable.
ROS2 is a logical choice to put on Loomo. It has a robust ecosystem of robotics algorithms available, and is still being updated.
Getting ROS2 on Loomo is a bit of a challenge. Loomo runs x86_64 Android 5.1, which is long past EOL. However, Android Studio can still produce binaries that run on this target.
ROS2 packages are another story. The ROS2 Java / Android project targets Java 1.8, while Android 5.1 only supports Java 1.6. I have a fork that runs on Android 5.1.
TODO: these instructions are a work-in-progress.
The build process is a bit janky still. But the basic workflow is:
- Install ROS2 Humble. Tested on Ubuntu 22.04, Windows Subsystem for Linux
- Install the Android SDK 22 and latest Android NDK
- Clone my fork of the ament_gradle plugin, which is required to build my fork of the
rclandroidproject - Setup my fork of the ROS2 Java project using the
ros2_java_android.reposfile colcon buildthe workspace- Find the
rclandroid.aarfile that gets produced by the build and copy it intodeps/rclandroid.aar
Now you should be able to just build the project using Android Studio. A copy of the rclandroid.aar file is included so you can skip this step, but it will likely only work on x86_64 Android targets.
The Segway Ninebot Loomo is a personal robot / personal transporter produced by Segway Ninebot.
Here are some relevant specs:
- Intel RealSense Color + Depth camera
- Fisheye camera (Seems to be black and white)
- 2x Infrared Depth sensors
- 1x Ultrasonic Depth sensor
- Robotic "head" with integrated Android tablet
- Speaker
The Loomo was discontinued at some point between 2019 and 2024. For now, the SDK documentation is still available here, and the SDK libraries can still be downloaded from the online Maven repositories.
I'm partially working on this project as a preservation effort, since I have some concerns:
- This SDK documentation could get pulled at anytime. I now have a backup, and can look into hosting solutions if the Segway site goes down.
- The SDK libraries are hosted on JCenter, which has been deprecated in read-only mode since 2021. I have a backup of all the SDK libraries, and can re-host them if needed.