14 DAY TRIAL // ODROID is a mini-PC platform, akin to the Raspberry Pi, and it comes with the same kind of functionality. Developers have just released the Ubuntu 15.04 Robotics Edition for XU3 and XU4 models.
ODROID might not have the same fame as Raspberry Pi, but that doesn't mean that it's not just as good and versatile. As you can see, it's perfectly capable of running Ubuntu 15.04, but it's a little bit different from what you would normally expect.
The fact that this new Ubuntu release is called the Robotic Edition can give you an idea of what this platform is all about. It's quite powerful for its size (hardware differs for the XU3 and XU4 models), and it's perfectly able to run the full version of the OS.
Ubuntu 15.04 Robotics Edition is impressive
The distribution is customized to provide support for some devices that are not exactly what you would expect to find on Linux, like the Microsoft Kinect.
"This image supports the ASUS Xtion, Kinect v1, and Kinect v2 sensors! Kinect v2 support is provided by Libfreenect2. Note that the Protonect demo has GL rendering disabled due a video conflict, but the sensor streaming data is acquired successfully. I will add a visualization application to Github in the near future," writes the developer on the official forum.
The OS is actually using the MATE desktop, and it comes with a number of default libraries like Libfreenect and Libfreenect2, not to mention stuff like Primesense and libfreenect drivers.
ODROID XU4 has some powerful specs, like the Samsung Exynos5422 Cortex-A15 2Ghz and Cortex-A7 Octa core CPUs, the Mali-T628 MP6 GPU, 2Gbyte LPDDR3 RAM PoP, and eMMC5.0 HS400 Flash Storage.
Users will notice that they need a password, but they are provided by the developers:
Password: odroid
Username: root
Password: odroid