How To: Use Webots 5.7.2 to play with a virtual Nao

Cyberbotics has released a new version of their Webots software which allows anyone to play with the Nao prototype. In version 5.7.2, the Nao model comes bundled in the Webots/projects/contests/nao_robocup folder, and is accessible to anyone. The Aldebaran library wrappers to the Webots function calls, however, are not available to the public, since these were released to the SPL robocup teams only.

Here is a simple guide to get started playing with the virtual robot:

  1. Download the Webots 5.7.2 package from here, and install it.
  2. Open Webots, and skip the intro demo. Choose Open from the file menu, and navigate to Webots/projects/contests/nao_robocup/worlds/ and open one of the world files (e.g. nao1.wbt).
  3. Navigate to Webots/projects/contests/nao_robocup/controllers/nao_soccer_player_red/ and open the C file (you can open it in Webots or in your favorite editor). Make some changes, and save them. Type ‘make’ in the terminal (in that directory), and reload the world from within Webots.

That’s it! The controller file in nao_soccer_player_red/ needs to interface directly with the Webots interface for moving the model, but it should be relatively straight forward to figure out.

Note: Many of the Nao files in the 5.7.2 release are heavily checksummed, and won’t work if they are modified. Avoid recompiling the nao_soccer_supervisor or modifying any of the world files or the prototype files, or Webots will not run.

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