Jetson Nano: Compiling Source Code

Author: ancient-sentinel - Last Updated: 5/6/2021

Compiling qi Libraries from Source Code

The only Linux distribution supported by SoftBanks is Ubuntu 16.04, and the Jetson Nano only works with a modified version of Ubuntu 18.04. Unfortunately, a number of differences between these two distributions make the available compiled versions of the (NAO)qi libraries incompatible with the Jetson Nano. The core libqi library is all that is absolutely required to interact with the NAO robot from the Jetson Nano, but the libalmath library is needed in order to use some methods of the ALMotion API.

The following forks of the SoftBanks/Aldebaran libraries have been modified in order to compile on the Jetson Nano:

• libqi
• libalmath
• qilang

In order to compile them:

1. Clone the repositories to the target Jetson Nano.
2. If there is a branch in the repository named Jetson-nano, switch to it.
3. Open the CMakeLists.txt files in the top level of each repository. Read all comments and make any necessary modifications specified according to the comments.
4. Use cmake to build the library.

Important Notes:

• See Jetson Nano: Installing qi Framework for instructions on compiling and installing libqi from source

• The qilang library requires the googletest in order to build. You will have to clone and compile that library.