Programming applications for Pepper QiSDK (the latest version of Pepper) is done by creating Android applications in Android Studio. The "QiSDK Plugin" for Android Studio was published for this in 2017, but as of November 2024 it is no longer compatible with Android Studio.
This guide will assist you in using Android Studio with Pepper — without the need of the plugin.
This guide was written with Android Studio Ladybug 2024.2.1.11.
- What did the plugin do?
- Connecting to Pepper
- Using an old robot project
- Starting a new robot project from template
- Starting a new robot project from scratch
- Adding robotic animations to project
The plugin is not necessary for building Pepper Android apps. It provided the following features for convenience:
-
Interface to connect to Pepper
When the plugin was first developed, the default ADB in Android Studio was not able to connect to Pepper (over TCP/IP), so a compatible version of ADB was bundled into the plugin, and a button was added to the toolbar to access it. This is no longer necessary, as newer versions of Android Studio are compatible.
This guide will show how to connect manually with ADB. -
“Robotification” of existing Android Studio projects
The plugin automatically adds required details to the gradle build files to use QiSDK.
This guide will show how to do this manually. -
Animation browser and library
Many robotic animations were bundled into the plugin (waving hello, etc), with a GUI element to browse them and automatically add them to the project.
This guide will show where to access robotic animations, and add them to your project. -
QiChat syntax highlighting
The plugin provides syntax highlighting and code completion for QiChat top files.
No alternative solution for this functionality is provided by this guide. -
Pepper Emulator
The plugin provides an Android Virtual Device with an emulated Pepper robot.
No alternative solution for this functionality is available.
To connect to Pepper with Android Studio, we must now manage ADB manually.
- Make sure Developer Mode and ADB are enabled on Pepper’s tablet. For details, please consult standard Android documentation.
- Make sure your computer and Pepper’s tablet are on the same [WIFI] network.
Look at the notifications on Pepper’s tablet, and note the IP address under the section For Run/Debug Config, and substitute it in the following command. If it the notification doesn't appear, make sure Pepper’s tablet is in Developer Mode, and is connected to WIFI.
Issue the following command in Android Studio’s terminal:
adb connect 192.168.1.2
If adb is not found, see the instructions below: Adding ADB to PATH.
On Pepper’s tablet, the Allow ADB? popup will appear, approve it. If you don't see the popup, it might be hiding behind the notifications.
In Android Studio’s toolbar, you will see ARTNCORE LPT_200AR in the Running devices list.
You can now install & run applications on Pepper by pressing the Run button in Android Studio.
Open a terminal, and use the following command to determine your shell:
echo $SHELL
If you see “/bin/bash”, use this command next:
echo 'export PATH="$PATH:~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools"' >> ~/.bash\_profile
Otherwise if you see “/bin/zsh”, use this command next:
echo 'export PATH="$PATH:~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools"' >> ~/.zprofile
Close the terminal, because a fresh terminal is needed to load the new path.
Open a terminal, and use the following command to determine your shell:
echo $SHELL
If you see “/bin/bash”, use this command next:
echo 'export PATH="$PATH:~/Android/Sdk/platform-tools"' >> ~/.bash\_profile
Otherwise if you see “/bin/zsh”, use this command next:
echo 'export PATH="$PATH:~/Android/Sdk/platform-tools"' >> ~/.zprofile
Close the terminal, because a fresh terminal is needed to load the new path.
Right-click on This PC or My Computer on your desktop or in File Explorer and select Properties.
In the System window, find and click Advanced system settings.
In the System Properties window, click the Environment Variables button near the bottom.
Select the Path variable in the System variables section and click Edit.
In the Edit Environment Variable dialog, you’ll see a list of paths, click New and add the following:
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\platform-tools
Press OK to save the changes, and then reboot.
Your old Android Studio Pepper projects are still usable with the new Android Studio. No additional steps need to be taken for Pepper/QiSDK.
After upgrading Android Studio, you may however find that your project’s particular gradle configuration or dependencies need to be updated. The details of which is a case-by-case basis and beyond the scope of this document.
We have provided a project template that is compatible with Android Studio Ladybug (2024.2.1 Patch 2) based upon this guide.
It is available for download here: https://github.com/unitedroboticsgroup-france/MyPepperApplication
We strongly recommend to change the key details of this project (EG: name, applicationId, namespace, etc). Please refer to standard Android Documentation for this.
Create a New Project from the Android Studio File menu.
Select Empty Activity then Next.
Select Minimum SDK: API 23 and Build configuration language: Kotlin DSL, then Finish.
Android Studio might not set up projects correctly out-of-the-box. So before configuring the project for Pepper, build it once to diagnose any Android-specific configuration issues. The troubleshooting section below highlights an issue we encountered when setting up our template project.
After verifying that the bare project builds (Build Menu / Make Project), press the Run button while ADB is connected to Pepper, to isolate and troubleshoot any remaining issues before configuring the project for the QiSDK. The empty activity hello world style application should display on Pepper.
Edit the project’s settings.gradle.kts to include the https://qisdk.softbankrobotics.com/sdk-beta/maven repository in dependencyResolutionManagement like below.
dependencyResolutionManagement {
repositoriesMode.set(RepositoriesMode.FAIL_ON_PROJECT_REPOS)
repositories {
google()
mavenCentral()
maven {
url = uri("https://qisdk.softbankrobotics.com/sdk-beta/maven")
}
}
}Edit the app module’s build.gradle.kts to include the com.aldebaran:qisdk dependency:
(Note that the build.gradle.kts generated by Android Studio will of course contain other dependencies, we are only showing the QiSDK specifics below.)
dependencies {
//noinspection UseTomlInstead
implementation("com.aldebaran:qisdk:1.7.5")
}Set up MainActivity.kt to inherit from RobotLifecycleCallbacks like below; modifying the onCreate and implementing onDestroy, onRobotFocusGained, onRobotFocusLost, and onRobotFocusRefused overrides. (Note that the MainActivity.kt generated by Android Studio will of course contain other code, we are only showing the QiSDK specifics below)
class MainActivity : ComponentActivity(), RobotLifecycleCallbacks {
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
QiSDK.register(this, this)
}
}
override fun onDestroy() {
QiSDK.unregister(this, this)
super.onDestroy()
}
override fun onRobotFocusGained(qiContext: QiContext?) {
}
override fun onRobotFocusLost() {
}
override fun onRobotFocusRefused(reason: String?) {
}Add some basic code to onRobotFocusGained to fully verify functionality of the QiSDK, and run the application!
override fun onRobotFocusGained(qiContext: QiContext?) {
val say: Say = SayBuilder.with(qiContext)
.withText("Hello human!")
.build()
say.run()
}In case Android Studio fails to load the imports for you automatically, here they are:
import com.aldebaran.qi.sdk.QiContext
import com.aldebaran.qi.sdk.QiSDK
import com.aldebaran.qi.sdk.RobotLifecycleCallbacks
import com.aldebaran.qi.sdk.builder.SayBuilder
import com.aldebaran.qi.sdk.`object`.conversation.SayIf you have build errors such as:
Dependency ‘...’ requires libraries and applications that depend on it co compile against version 35 or later of the Android APIs,
then update the compileSdk and targetSdk in app/buildgradle.kts to 35.
Or use the Project Structure dialog to set Compile SDK Version and Target SDK Version to 35.
Many animations are hosted at the following GitHub repository: https://github.com/softbankrobotics-labs/pepper-core-anims
After downloading this repository, you can add any of the .qianim to your project, to the res/raw directory. Then you can run the animations as usual:
val animation: Animation = AnimationBuilder.with(qiContext)
.withResources(R.raw.Hello\_01)
.build()
var animate: Animate = AnimateBuilder.with(qiContext)
.withAnimation(animation)
.build()
val animateFuture: Future<Void> = animate.async().run()