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MobileRobots' Advanced Robot Interface for Applications (ARIA) is a C++ library (software development toolkit or SDK) for all MobileRobots/ActivMedia platforms. ARIA can dynamically control your robot's velocity, heading, relative heading, and other motion parameters either through simple low-level commands or through its high-level Actions infrastructure. ARIA also receives odometric position estimates, sonar readings, and all other current operating data sent by the robot platform.

ARIA provides tools to integrate I/O with your own custom hardware—digital, analog, and serial—and includes comprehensive support for all MobileRobots/ActivMedia robot accessories, including the SICK LMS200 laser-range finder, pan-tilt-zoom cameras, Pioneer Gripper and Arm, and more.

ARIA also includes a library called ArNetworking which implements an extensible infrastructure for easy remote network operations for your robots, user interfaces, and other networked services. Through a server executing on the robot's PC, ArNetworking-enabled clients connect from another computer on the network to get data and issue commands. Download and use our dynamic MobileEyes operator GUI client, to view robot data and issue commands remotely via ArNetworking.

A variety of other useful tools for building robot applications are included in ARIA or available as separate libraries, including speech synthesis and recognition; sound effect playback; mathematical functions, cross-platform (Windows/Linux) thread and socket implementations; and more.

The ARIA library is written in C++. Access to most of the ARIA API is also available from the Java and Python languages via "wrapper" layers. 

C++ development with ARIA is supported on GNU/Linux with GCC (3.4 or greater; ARIA is precompiled with GCC 3.4 but may be recompiled with any later version) and on Windows with MS Visual C++ .NET 2003 (7.1) and Visual C++ 2008 (9.0).

ARIA comes with full source code under the GNU General Public License. The license allows re-distribution of code as long as all is distributed freely. Proprietary distributions (without releasing your own source code, for example) requires a different, commercial license. (Contact robots@mobilerobots.com for details.) ARIA includes a full API reference manual and example code.

Read the distribution README for additional details on getting started with ARIA.

{{SoftwareDownload|pkg=Aria}}

=== Additional Debian Packages ===
{{AriaJavaDebianLink}} 
{{AriaPythonDebianLink}} (requires Python 2.4: For Debian 3.1, install [http://robots.mobilerobots.com/ARIA/download/python2.4_2.4-3_i386.deb python2.4_2.4-3_i386.deb]. For other versions and systems, use <tt>apt-get install python2.4</tt>)


To get started using ARIA, the first document you should read is your robot operations manual shipped with the robot or available on the [[Manuals]] page. This will show you the components of the robot, and how it can be controlled from a client program.

If your robot has an onboard computer, the ARIA software development kit is preinstalled.  In a Linux installation, ARIA can be found in /usr/local/Aria. In a Windows installation, you can find it in the Start menu under MobileRobots->Aria. First read the ARIA README.txt file. This will give a brief practical overview of the ARIA SDK. Next, read the ARIA API reference manual (Aria-Reference). This manual includes a longer discussion of robot software development, what ARIA offers and how to use it, as well as documentation of each class and method in ARIA.

Finally, ARIA includes many example programs in the 'examples' directory.

Other libraries and packegs you install will also include their own documentation, in the form of a README text file and/or a reference manual similar to ARIA's.

== Recommended Additional Downloads ==

;[[MobileSim]]
:To simulate a robot and enviornment before trying your code on a real robot, use the MobileSim simulator. (SRISim is no longer available.)
;[[MobileEyes]]
:Customers may also want to download our proprietary MobileEyes application so that you can have a GUI to remotely watch and control what the robot is doing. MobileEyes connects to a server program on an robot onboard computer. using ArNetworking (library included with ARIA) across a wireless network, letting you view and control the robot's movements and environment without slowing it down. See the ArNetworking library documentation for details on developing custom server programs.