• Introduction
  
• Installation
  
  • RPI OS
    
  • GStreamer
    
• Examples
  
• UbiOne
  

Ubiquo is a web application that allows you to live stream and interact with your Raspberry Pi remotely. With Ubiquo, one can easily control and interact bots and IoT devices built around a RPI. Examples are drones or rovers controlled remotely using a simple web browser.

Important: pease note that it is not a professional service but a proof-of-concept demo. It does not offer any warranties, particularly in security.

I have designed Ubiquo having in mind its use with a Raspbeery Pi 4. Install the latest Bullseye Raspberry Pi OS and update it (IMPORTANT: install the 32-bit version):

1. Install RPI with Raspberry Pi Imager
2. Update and upgrade: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

A camera is expected to be connected to the CSI connector, and the RPI OS configured accordingly:

1. Go to the RPI system configuration menu by typing sudo raspi-config in a terminal.
2. Select "Interface Options" > "Camera".
3. Select "Yes" to enable the camera.

Ubiquo is built on top of GStreamer and WebRTC, using GStreamer plugin webrtcbin. Raspbian Bullseye already have installed GStreamer 1.18.4, which means that if you want ot use this version, we don't need to compile everything from source.

Start by cloning the repository:

git clone https://github.com/Ubiqu0/Ubiquo.git
cd Ubiquo

Create and activate a virtual environment:

sudo apt-get install virtualenv
virtualenv env
source env/bin/activate

Note: if you are working with Raspbian Buster, don't forget to select python3 for the new virtual enviroment:

virtualenv -p python3.7 env

To do a quick install and work with GStreamer 1.18.4 run the following commands:

chmod +x install_gstreamer_bullseye_v1.18.4.sh
./install_gstreamer_bullseye_v1.18.4.sh

To compile from the source the latest GStreamer version (1.20.1 at the time I'm writing this guide) run instead the following commands:

chmod +x install_gstreamer.sh
./install_gstreamer.sh

This script will downloand and install GStreamer and several plugins. It will take some time. When finished you can test if GStreamer is installed (note that the first time GStreamer is exectued a bunch of warnings will show up):

gst-inspect-1.0 --version

Install ubirtc python module with:

pip install .

The first step is to open an account at ubiquo.net. Log in and create a new device by clicking "Add new Device". (Important: you should use Chrome or Opera. Firefox has been causing some problems with the WebRTC connection. )

Configuration form:

• Name: device name.
• Device ID: unique device ID.
• TURN server: turn service.
• Resolution: video resolution.
• FPS: frames per second.
• Bitrate: maximum bitrate at bps.
• Send mode: how data commands are sent to the RPI. Continuously, i.e., commands sent non-stop every "minimum delay" interval, or send and stop when a key is released.

I have configured Ubiquo control room to listen the following keyboard keys:

q,w,e,r,t,a,s,d,f,g,ArrowRight,ArrowLeft,ArrowDown,ArrowUp.

Additionally, if connected, the control room reads a PS4 controller input.

IMPORTANT: The communication between the browser and your RPI is based on WebRTC, meaning that a relay server can be necessary. Subspace has kindly given me access to their global WebRTC TURN service that relays WebRTC connections with very low latency. Note, however, that this results in data transfer consumption. For this reason, I have put a limit of 20 min per call.

You have a Hello World example in the examples folder. Just open it and insert your device ID (note that you need to connect a camera do the csi connector.):

WS_SERVER = 'wss://ubiquo.net/ws/control/'
DEVICE_ID = 'XXXXX' #insert your device ID

You are now ready to go:

python hello_world.py

then go to your device control room and click Connect. After the connection is established and the a datachanel opened, press the w key and check its reception at the RPI terminal.

You can send information back to the control room. send_telemetry.py shows an example of how to do it. It sends a python dictionary every second. The control room is expected to receive a dictionary with a maximum size of eight keys. The keys must be named t1,...,t8, and the values are given by a list in the format ['Variable name',value] or ['Variable name',value, min, max].

For more complete examples, please check this repository. UbiOne is an RPI HAT designed to give remote-ability to an RPI. It joins an STM32F4 MCU, a PCIe connector for 4G (and 5G!) connectivity, and a set of peripherals.