Installation Instructions

First, a note about required hardware: To run programs on a robot, you will need an Internet capable personal computer. The computers located in the SIUE School of Engineering computer laboratories will work nicely. Home computer use is discouraged as the distances across the network cause a great deal of latency and can make stable connections impossible. With these facts in mind, use the robot ONLY while on campus.

The RAFS project operates the robot from the SIUE Sun server (solar.cs.siue.edu); therefore no robot control software is needed (on your local computer). However, to connect to solar you will need the program vncviewer. This program is available for free. Set your web browser to http://solar.cs.siue.edu and click on the link to download vncviewer.exe (win32), vncviewer (linux glib2.2). Once downloaded, run the executable (which runs in the same manner as other executeable binary files). There is no actual program installation; the program can run on its own.