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__TOC__
  
 
=Welcome!=
 
=Welcome!=
BeagleBoard.org hopes to be accepted as a mentoring organization in the [[BeagleBoard/GSoC|Google Summer of Code]] for 2011!! Here we collect project Ideas for the 2011 GSoC.
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BeagleBoard.org has been accepted as a mentoring organization in the [[BeagleBoard/GSoC|Google Summer of Code]] for 2016! Below, we've collected project ideas for the GSoC-2016.
  
'''Background'''<br>
+
==What is Google Summer of Code?==
For a quick view of how the BeagleBoard relates to the open source development community, take a listen to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9xVbntl-DY Mans and Koen's interview with the Linux Outlaws]. The BeagleBoard is a popular [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_hardware open-source hardware] project utilizing the first broadly available ARM Cortex-A8 processor. Over 10,000 people are experimenting with the BeagleBoard today to bring their ideas for the future of everywhere-computing to life and you can be one of them.
+
Spend your summer break writing code and learning about open source development while earning money! Accepted students work with a mentor and become a part of the open source community. Many become lifetime open source developers! The 2016 student application window is March 14th to 25th.
  
People are building autonomous flying vehicles, robots, home media centers, video walls, in-car computers and much more.  By executing or mentoring a Google Summer of Code project with BeagleBoard.org, you can work towards making these things easier to create and better to use for your peers---and you'll get some hardware too.
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Google Summer of Code is open to post-secondary students, age 18 and older in most countries.
  
The BeagleBoard:
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Read more on [https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/organizations/4817552005922816/ the GSoC site BeagleBoard.org landing page] and [https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/faq the FAQ].
* utilizes a complex SoC with 3 primary processing cores,
 
** one for general-purpose activities such as running Linux and applications (ARM Cortex-A8),
 
** one for running real-time signal processing algorithms (C64x+ VLIW fixed-point DSP), and
 
** one for rendering 3D graphics (Imagination SGX), and
 
* is specifically designed for low-power (typically running under 2W at full processing load), and
 
* has a very small foot-print that includes standard peripheral expansion like USB.
 
  
The result is that there are many opportunities to explore challenges in computer science in areas of:
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==BeagleBoard.org Background==
* optimal execution of applications/algorithms on additional instruction set architectures like ARM or C6000,
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BeagleBoard.org is a volunteer organization that seeks to advance the state of open-source software on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_hardware open-source hardware] platforms capable of running high-level languages and operating systems (primarily Linux) in embedded environments. Born from taking mobile phone processors and putting them on low-cost boards to build affordable desktop computers, BeagleBoard.org has evolved to focus on the needs of the "maker" community with greater focus on the I/O needed for controlling motors and reading sensors to build things like robots, 3d printers, flying drones, in-car computer systems and much more. Past BeagleBoard.org GSoC projects included [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2014_Projects#Project:_BotSpeak_PRU_Firmware|creating an interpreter for tiny CPUs]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2014_Projects#Project:_PyBBIO|adding SPI and sensor support to Python]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2014_Projects#Project:_Bone101|an HTML and git based tutorial sharing environment]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2014_Projects#Project:_BeaglePilot|porting autopilot software to Linux]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2014_Projects#Project:_BeagleLogic|an open source 100MHz 14-channel logic analyzer]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2014_Projects#Project:_Android_Remote_Display|using Android tablets as Linux displays]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2013_Projects#Linux_ADC_IIO_Support|putting ADC support in Linux under the IIO framework]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2013_Projects#Android-based_Boot|using Android phones as a network boot source]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2013_Projects#Userspace_Arduino|Running Arduino code on Linux]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2013_Projects#Robot_Operating_System|Robot Operating System support within the Yocto Project build system]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2013_Projects#Minix_I2C|Minix I2C support]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2010_Projects/C6Run|an RPC framework for heterogeneous processor communication]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2010_Projects/USBSniffer|a transparent USB packet sniffer]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2010_Projects/XBMC|ARM optimizations for XBMC]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2010_Projects/FFTW|ARM optimizations for FFTs]], [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2010_Projects/Pulse_Width_Modulation|make-shift pulse-width-modulation]] and [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/2010_Projects/OpenCV|RPC optimizations for OpenCV]]. BeagleBoard.org has benefited from sponsorship from Texas Instruments, [[CircuitCo]], Digi-Key, element14 and others, but avoids any dependence on that sponsorship for sustaining the effort. The project has evolved over the past few years with over 1,000,000 boards in circulation with developers worldwide and strong roots in the Linaro, Yocto Project, Angstrom Distribution, Debian and Linux communities---and support for running most major Linux distributions including Ubuntu, Android, Fedora, ArchLinux, Gentoo, Buildroot and many more.
* splitting tasks appropriately between processing cores to minimize task execution time and power consumption, and
 
* integrating computation into new form-factors.
 
  
'''Students and mentors'''<br>
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BeagleBoard was inspiration for Raspberry Pi[http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/features/raspberry-pi-interview-eban-upton-reveals-all] and is available for about $50 through over 30 distributors world-wide (and is even available at Micro Center and Radio Shack in the USA), but is more than a throw-away computer. It is an instance of true open hardware, exposing users to the broader world of electronics, demystifying computers and fostering an environment of clones that have changed the industry for good.
Student proposals can create projects from the following ideas or propose their own project based on their own ideas.  From reading about previous Google Summer of Code projects, the key to success is being passionate about your project, so propose something that is extremely interesting to you, even if it not on the list. We will be glad to help students develop ideas into projects on [http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=beagle the BeagleBoard IRC] or [http://groups.google.com/group/beagleboard the BeagleBoard mailing list]. There are many more ideas of what can be done and we will match projects to students interest and help scope the proposal to something that can be completed in the Summer of Code time-frame.
 
  
There are more than 200 existing projects listed at http://beagleboard.org/project. If you are interested in one of those projects, talk with the project members to see if there are any aspects of their projects with which they can help you contribute. There are also several ideas on the [[ECE597_Project_Ideas|ECE597 class project idea list]].
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Students will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of cross-compiling before being accepted, but support for demonstration is available through the IRC channel that typically has approximately 150 online chatters logged on at any time, most with sufficient experience to explain the process.
  
__TOC__
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'''''<span style="color:red">Every accepted student will be sent a BeagleBone Black, SeeedStudio BeagleBone Green or BeagleBoard-X15 before the first week of coding for testing their project.</span>'''''
  
=General requirements=
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Additional hardware will be provided depending on need and value.
All projects have the following basic requirements:
 
# The project must be registered on http://beagleboard.org/project.
 
# All newly generated materials must be released under an [http://www.opensource.org/licenses open source license].
 
# Individual students shall retain copyright on their works.
 
# Source code generated during the project must be released on gitorious.org, github.com, repo.or.cz, sourceforge, code.google.com, gforge.ti.com, or omapzoom.org.
 
# The registration on http://beagleboard.org/project must include an RSS feed with project announcements and updates at every milestone.  Sources for the RSS feed should be blogger.com, wordpress.com, or some other established blog hosting service with known reliability.
 
# To help you to break your project down into manageable chunks and also help the project's mentors to better support your efforts, weekly project status reports should be e-mailed to the project's mentors and the organization administrator (Jason Kridner). Each status report should outline:
 
## what was accomplished that week,
 
## any issues that prevented that week's goals from being completed, and
 
## your goals for the next week.
 
# Students will provide two recorded presentations, one near the beginning of the project summarizing their project goals and another in the wrap-up phase to summarize their accomplishments.  Examples can be found on http://beagleboard.org/gsoc.
 
# Students will demonstrate their ability to cross-compile and utilize version control software by creating a "Hello World" application and uploading it as a fork to http://gitorious.org/beagleboard-validation/gsoc.  For assistance, please visit http://beagleboard.org/chat or utilize the beagleboard-gsoc Google Group.  The "Hello World" application must print your name and the date out in an ARM Linux environment.  Freely available emulators may be used to to test your application or you can ask anyone on the chat or mailing list to help you test.
 
# All projects will produce reusable software components and will not be "what I built over my Summer vacation" projects.  Including a hardware component is welcome, but the project *deliverable* will be software that may be utilized by a wide audience of the BeagleBoard community.
 
  
=Fundamental infrastructure projects=
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For more information, check out http://beagleboard.org and http://beagleboard.org/brief.
These projects fundamentally improve support of existing open source projects for ARM-based devices in general and the BeagleBoard in specific, bringing the broad body of high-level open source applications into smaller, lower-cost, lower-power systems that can go anywhere.
 
  
==Improve boot support==
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==Students looking for ideas==
There are many bootloaders available for the BeagleBoard and other ARM embedded devices, and all can be given improvements for ease-of-use for new users. Nevertheless, U-boot is the most used one and the one that most new Beagleboard users will come in contact with, so improving U-boot for new users gives the most benefit for the project.  
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Student proposals can encompass projects inspired from the following list of ideas or can include personal project ideas. Previous Google Summer of Code projects show that the key to success is being passionate about your project, so propose something that is extremely interesting to you, even if it is not on this list. We will be glad to help students develop ideas into projects via [http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=beagle-gsoc the BeagleBoard GSoC IRC] or [http://groups.google.com/group/beagleboard-gsoc the BeagleBoard-GSoC mailing list]. There are many potential project ideas and we will match students to projects based on their interests and help scope the proposals to something that can be completed in the Summer of Code timeframe.
  
''Goals:''
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There are more than 500 existing projects listed at http://beagleboard.org/project. If you are interested in any of the projects listed on the BeagleBoard.org projects page, contact the project members to see if there are any aspects of their projects that can be enhanced to create a GSoC project. There are also several ideas on the [[ECE497_Project_Ideas|ECE497 class project idea list]]. You can also check out [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas-2015|last year's idea page]].
* U-boot updates
 
** Add support for the OMAP3 EHCI controller in U-boot
 
*** BeagleBoard and BeagleBoard-xM both have an USB EHCI controller that is currently not supported by U-boot
 
*** OMAPPedia reports some patches are available for PandaBoard that could be reused for BeagleBoard
 
** Add support for USB MSC devices
 
** Add support for the Ethernet controller on the BeagleBoard-xM that is connected via the EHCI controller
 
** Verify TFTP support
 
** Debug USB OTG MUSB driver
 
** Clean up DFU patch on mailing list and get accepted mainline
 
** Replace x-loader with u-boot SPL for NAND
 
** Replace x-loader with u-boot SPL for MMC/SD
 
** Replace x-loader with u-boot SPL for USB
 
** Replace x-loader with u-boot SPL for serial
 
* Create console or Qt-based helper application to boot BeagleBoard entirely over USB, including loading kernel over DFU or TFTP and NFS-mounting the file system
 
''Possible mentors:'' Jason Kridner, Khasim Syed Mohammed, Steve Sakoman, Dirk Behme, Laine Walker-Avina<br>
 
  
==JTAG debugging==
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==Mentors wondering where to help==
Implement, configure and document a complete open source based JTAG debugging development chain for ARM Cortex A8 in OMAP3 used on Beagle Board. This includes final port of open source JTAG software [[BeagleBoardOpenOCD|OpenOCD]] for OMAP3 on Beagle, and then configure and document all software (and hardware) components involved. This could look like:
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Please start by registering your ideas for student projects below by following the template provided with the existing ideas. Furthermore, scroll down to the bottom and give everyone a bit of information about your expertise and availability by adding yourself to the table. Jason will make final approvals for mentor assignments based on if we first get accepted as a mentoring organization and best matching mentor skill sets with student project ideas deemed valuable to the community.
  
''ARM Cortex A8 <-> OMAP3 <-> BeagleBoard <-> Flyswatter (*)'' <-> OpenOCD <-> GDB <-> Eclipse (CDT)
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You will also need be invited by an administrator to register on [https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/organizations/4817552005922816/ the GSoC site] and request to be a mentor for BeagleBoard.org.
  
(*) Note: [[BeagleBoardJTAG#TinCanTools_Flyswatter|Flyswatter]] is used as example JTAG dongle here. All OpenOCD JTAG dongles able to deal with 1.8V and configure EMUx pins correctly can be used.
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==General requirements==
 +
All projects have the following basic requirements:
 +
# Once accepted, the project must be registered on http://beagleboard.org/project.
 +
# All newly generated materials must be released under an [http://www.opensource.org/licenses open source license].
 +
# Individual students shall retain copyright on their works.
 +
# Source code generated during the project must be released on github.com (to be cloned to github.com/beagleboard on successful completion).
 +
# The registration on http://beagleboard.org/project must include an RSS feed with project announcements and updates at every milestone. Sources for the RSS feed should be blogger.com, wordpress.com, or some other established blog-hosting service with known reliability.
 +
# To help you to break your project down into manageable chunks and also to help the project's mentors to better support your efforts, weekly project status reports should be e-mailed to the project's mentors and the organization administrator (Jason Kridner). Each status report should outline:
 +
## what was accomplished that week,
 +
## any issues that prevented that week's goals from being completed and
 +
## your goals for the next week.
 +
# Students will provide two recorded audio/video presentations uploaded to youtube or vimeo (screencasts are appropriate), one near the beginning of the project summarizing their project goals and another in the wrap-up phase to summarize their accomplishments.  Examples can be found on http://beagleboard.org/gsoc.
 +
# Students will demonstrate their ability to cross-compile and utilize version control software by creating a "Hello World" application and generating a pull request to https://github.com/jadonk/gsoc-application/tree/master/ExampleEntryJasonKridner.  For assistance, please visit http://beagleboard.org/chat or utilize the beagleboard-gsoc Google Group.  The "Hello World" application must print your name and the date out in an ARM Linux environment.  Freely available emulators may be used to test your application or you can ask anyone on the chat or mailing list to help you test.
 +
# All projects will produce reusable software components and will not be "what–I-built-over-my-summer-vacation" projects. Including a hardware component is welcome, but the project *deliverable* will be software that may be utilized by a wide audience of the BeagleBoard.org community.
  
''Goal:'' Able to single step kernel code using OpenOCD, GDB, and Eclipse<br>
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==Idea template==
''Existing project:'' [http://beagleboard.org/project/OpenOCD+OMAP3+JTAG+support/ OpenOCD]<br>
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Description
''Hardware skills:'' Able to monitor logic-level digital signals<br>
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<br>
''Software skills:'' C, ARMv7 assembly<br>
 
''Possible mentors:'' Dirk Behme, Laine Walker-Avina <br>
 
  
'''NOTE: [http://www.tincantools.com TinCanTools] will donate [[Flyswatter]] boards for this project
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''Goal:'' <br>
'''
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''Hardware Skills:'' <br>
 +
''Software Skills:'' <br>
 +
''Possible Mentors:''<br>
 +
''Upstream Repository:'' <br>
 +
''References:'' <br>
  
==Display driver improvements==
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=Ideas=
Many people get stuck with the BeagleBoard due to being unable to configure the resolution and timing for their monitor.  Fortunately, the BeagleBoard hardware is quite capable of reading the EDID information from the monitor, enabling the software to  
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==Linux kernel support for embedded devices and interfaces==
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Improving the state of the Linux kernel, especially with regards to embedded devices and interfaces. Includes improved ARM/OMAP/Sitara platform support, simplifying the development of add-on hardware for embedded systems and exchanging hardware connectivity information with userspace.
''Goals:''
 
* Add EDID reading support into the BeagleBoard kernel
 
* Add automated resolution configuration
 
* Implement Xrandr for BeagleBoard
 
''Existing project:'' [http://beagleboard.org/project/linux linux-omap]<br>
 
''Software skills:'' C, ARMv7 assembly (desired), Linux kernel driver development, X11 knowledge<br>
 
''Possible mentors:'' <br>
 
  
=Multimedia and user experience projects=
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==Improving the BeagleBone low-latency multi-channel audio system==
 +
Based on existing hardware from http://www.creative-technologies.de/linux-based-low-latency-multichannel-audio-system-2/
  
==Add DSP support to MPlayer==
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* Extend driver architecture to Beagle Board X15 (more computational power for more DSP capabilities), including performance test at CPU load conditions, add DSP library to make use of X15's DSPs
MPlayer is often used to play video on the Beagleboard and a lot of users are asking for it. Most are surprised that there is no DSP support (yet). Task to be performed would be to add DSP support to MPlayer using TI DSPLink and CodecEngine and the free DSP codecs that TI provides. CE support already exists in a branch of VLC, the task is to make that also work in MPlayer and do that in a memory efficient way (0-copy between ARM and DSP components)
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* Create USB Audio Class 1 and/or 2 http://www.linux-usb.org/gadget/ Gadget Kernel Module, and optimizing throughput latency to allow cape to be used as independent PC soundcard
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* Further optimize available driver for BBG for latency, with focus on ASOC driver
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* Make a real-time audio processor box on beaglebone.  Needs HD audio cape, could use PRUs for real-time sound processing (ie, guitar input) and second midi source using alsa or hardware cape.  Also like to have pitch/envelope-following synth for analog instrument/mic input.
  
''Goal:'' Able to play video in MPlayer using DSP codecs<br>
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==Heterogeneous co-processor support in open source operating systems and libraries==
''Existing project:'' http://www.mplayerhq.hu/<br>
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Enabling usage of DSPs, PRUs, FPGAs, Cortex-Ms, Arduinos, MSP430 launchpads and other attached processing platforms.
''Existing project:'' http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Codec_Engine_Overview<br>
 
''Software skills:'' C<br>
 
''Possible mentors:'' Vladimir Pantelic<br>
 
  
==DSP accelerated color conversion==
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==Process Sensor Data in Real-Time==
Multimedia on the Beagleboard can already make use of the DSP, yet there are still steps like color conversion that can take a lot of CPU resources (e.g. in gstreamer). Task to be performed is to move some of that processing to the DSP side where possible, preferably to run in parallel with ARM side processing. C6Accel could be used as the framework to run parts of the SW on the DSP.  
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* Need a sonic anemometer for open source weather station (use PRUs to calculate sonic velocity and wind components). Needs ultrasonic ping sensors and mounting framework.
 +
* Port/implement MAV (drone) optical flow or stereo image processing to PRUs, use "Blue" or Black (via BBIO cape) as Ardupilot platform.
  
''Goal:'' Able to do e.g. DSP color conversion in a gstreamer pipeline or in FFmpeg/Mplayer<br>
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==Sample PRU code interfacing with other kernel interfaces==
''Existing project:'' http://www.mplayerhq.hu/<br>
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Write sample code to demostrate how data to and from the PRU can be exposed via standard user interfaces. Possible samples include:
''Existing project:'' http://www.FFmpeg.org/<br>
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* Expose the PRU as a I2C/UART/SPI etc. The would act as a bitbang I2C master interface that other I2C drivers can leverage.
''Existing project:'' https://gstreamer.ti.com/gf/project/gstreamer_ti/<br>
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* Expose data from the PRU as an IIO, input, and/or character device.
''Existing project:'' http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/C6Accel<br>
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The goal is to show the 2 pieces (kernel + PRU firmware) needed to use the PRU as a "normal" HW.
''Software skills:'' C<br>
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Most likely this will have to use the remote proc interface.
''Possible mentors:''  Diego Dompe<br>
 
  
==DSP accelerated USB webcam gadget==
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==Linux userspace support of embedded devices and interfaces in high-level languages==
The Linux USB stack now has a webcam gadget, this means a Beagleboard with a connected camera can act as an USB webcam towards a host PC. Using CodecEngine and the TI DSP codecs, the webcam gadget could use the DSP to more efficiently stream already compressed video data to the host PC.  
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Improving the Bonescript JavaScript library, the PyBBIO Python library, Userspace Arduino, web-based interface libraries, examples or alternatives in other languages.
  
''Goal:'' Able to stream encoded (MJPG/H264) video data to the host using the USB webcam gadget<br>
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For PyBBIO this could include support for the latest 4.1 Linux kernel (see [https://github.com/graycatlabs/PyBBIO/milestones/4.1%20kernel%20support 4.1 milestone here]), addressing [https://github.com/graycatlabs/PyBBIO/issues open issues], adding new features and device drivers, etc..
''Existing project:'' https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/48487/<br>
 
''Existing project:'' http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Codec_Engine_Overview<br>
 
''Software skills:'' C<br>
 
''Possible mentors:''  ???<br>
 
  
==Speech recognition==
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==BeagleSat Platform Integration==
TI has released [https://gforge.ti.com/gf/project/tiesr/ source for a speech recognition library] that runs on the ARM processor of the OMAP3 on the BeagleBoard. This software has now a LGPL  v2.1 license.  Using speech recognition library, several tasks could be performed:
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* Goal: Integrate BeagleSat "satellite" platform into existing ArduPilot framework, including previous GSoC BeagleSat magnetometer application; BeagleBone blue has most of the required hardware, and black is already a supported hardware platform for ardupilot (via BBMini or Proto capes), however, ArduPilot does not have a satellite vehicle platform (should probably be derived from ArduCopter).
* Voice recognition integrated into Ubiquity: Integrate Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Ubiquity, and voice recognition on the BeagleBoard with a microphone. Use of a Wiimote could provide additional interactive capabilities.
+
* Hardware Skills: soldering/prototyping, serial/debug, sensors
 +
* Software Skills: high-level language skills (Python, C, etc), some knowledge of micro-controller compilers and targets, kernel config/programming (some)
 +
* Possible Mentors: Steve Arnold, Alexander Hiam
 +
* Upstream Repository: [https://github.com/nvisnjic/BeagleSat BeagleSat] , [https://github.com/BeaglePilot/ardupilot BeaglePilot] , [https://github.com/mirkix/BBBMINI BBMini]
 +
* References: [http://www.strawsondesign.com/#!board-features BeagleBone Blue board features] , [http://dev.ardupilot.com/wiki/building-for-beaglebone-black-on-linux/ Building (ardupilot) for BeagleBone Black on Linux] , [http://dev.ardupilot.com/wiki/mavlink-commands/ MAVLink Commands]
  
Creating a gstreamer plugin for the library would improve the ability of other applications to use it.
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==Improving initial experience for novice developers==
 +
Improving the methods for communicating how to build projects, improving the out-of-box experience for novices and consolidating support for simplified home manufacturing (CNC, 3D printers, laser cutters, pick-and-place machines, etc.), drones/bots (ROS, IMU, video streaming, etc.) or other common tasks.
  
''Existing project:'' http://beagleboard.org/project/tiesr<br>
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==SPI Flash Emulator (possibly via PRU)==
''Possible mentors:'' Lorin Netsch, Sourabh Ravindran, Diego Dompe (if done with gstreamer)<br>
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Often in embedded devices, SPI NOR flash is being used more and more as the main non-volatile memory due to cost and technical abilities, but developing software and firmware for embedded devices which use SPI NOR flash as their main non-volatile memory often results in very slow code-compile-test sequences.  This is due to SPI NOR flash's very slow erase and write times even when using a fast programmer like a Dediprog SF100 or Tin Can Tools SPI Hook.  Typically, developers will purchase a SPI NOR flash emulator in order to speed development, as programming the emulator's memory can take 1% of the time it takes to program an actual SPI flash part which greatly improves the code-compile-test sequence throughput.  However, typical emulators like this often cost upwards of $1000 or more.  Creating a lower cost SPI NOR flash emulator which uses the McSPI interface on AM335x or the PRU to handle the physical SPI slave interface and Linux's USB gadget capabilities to load the data from a PC host would result in a much lower cost but high performance SPI NOR flash emulator.
  
==Add DSP support to GNU radio==
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Initial development likely could be done using breadboard circuits without needing any special cape hardware. Development and testing could use a single BBB to act as both the emulator and the target, such as having the emulator portion expose a 64 Mb (8 MB) emulated SPI flash and then have the normal AM335x SPI host port access it as a block device or through spidev.  Longer term, special cape hardware could be designed to support level shifting but initial development should not require any special PCB.
''Goal:'' GNU Radio is a popular Software Defined Radio package for PC based computers. GNU Radio also runs on the Beagleboard and can make use of the floating point unit on the ARM. However, the DSP on the Beagleboard has tremendous potential for increasing GNU Radio's capability on small hardware. The project difficulty is based on the level of effort desired by the student, it should be fairly easy to create a standalone GNU Radio block that talks to the DSP via dsplink, or very complex to modify the GNU Radio block scheduler to launch block on the DSP directly.<br>
 
''Existing project:'' [http://gnuradio.org GNURadio]<br>
 
''Software skills:'' C++<br>
 
''Mentors:'' Philip Balister<br>
 
  
=Hardware + software projects=
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Since the McSPI interface on AM335x can only operate at up to 16 MHz in slave mode (even in OPP100, it's slower in OPP50), it will first need to be evaluated if using a PRU is the best course of action or if just using the McSPI interface would be a better choice.
These are "Make"-style projects that advance general knowledge for creating and improving end products for consumers.  These projects should need to generate code, not just documentation, and the hardware steps should be reasonably simple to reproduce.
 
  
==Create JavaScript tutorial for hardware control==
+
* Goal: Create a generic SPI slave framework in Linux with McSPI as the first hardware layer and a SPI flash emulator as the first protocol driver.<br />
Create a live-editable tutorial written in HTML and JavaScript to explore I/O (GPIO, I2C, SPI, USB, etc.) using the Linux kernel. The Node.JS JavaScript interpreter enables you to use your
+
* Hardware Skills: General breadboarding with jumper wires.<br />
 +
* Software Skills: Linux kernel C programming.<br />
 +
* Possible Mentors: Andrew Bradford<br />
 +
* Upstream Repository:kernel.org<br />
 +
* References:
  
''Existing project:'' [http://blog.hangerhead.com/2011/03/nodejs-based-cloud9-javascript-ide.html Node.JS-based Cloud9 IDE running on a BeagleBoard]<br>
+
==PRU Framebuffer==
''Existing project:'' [http://gitorious.org/beagleboard-validation/education HTML and JavaScript slideshow Education application to hold the tutorial]<br>
+
Like was done before on AM18xx (http://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/offloading-vga-generation-onto-a-coprocessor/) but bring the capability to AM335x. There is value in having a PRU video output system as some newer TI SoC have many PRU but no video output (such as AM5716) and sometimes the way pinouts work for a given design, the normal video output pins on a SoC may not be usable but a PRU may be able to reach usable pins.
''Existing project:'' [https://gforge.ti.com/gf/project/matrix_gui/ Matrix GUI]<br>
 
''Goals:''
 
* Bundle Cloud9 into an Angstrom recipe for easy installation
 
* Bundle the Education application into an Angstrom recipe as well
 
* Create server-side library for GPIO that probes the kernel to discover the GPIO pins
 
* Create browser-side library for exposing GPIOs and events in the browser upon GPIO interrupt events
 
* Create libraries for I2C
 
* Create libraries for SPI
 
* Create libraries for USB HID host
 
* Create libraries for USB GadgetFS and HID client
 
* Modify Matrix to provide local hosting of the Education application
 
''Possible mentor:'' Jason Kridner<br>
 
  
==Beagleboard Hardware Control Library==
+
* Goal: PRU firmware which can drive a TTL LCD panel at a single or multiple standard resolutions along with Linux framebuffer driver enablement and communications to the PRU for both sending/receiving messages and sending of image data.<br />
Create a user space library that makes using hardware connected to the Beagleboard expansion connectors easier to use. This includes functions to control GPIO pins (and trigger on GPIO Interrupts) and to send and receive data over I2C and SPI. All this should be well documented so that a new Beagleboard user can learn quickly how to control and interact with attached hardware.
+
* Hardware Skills: Ability to jumper wire BBB to an off the shelf TTL LCD panel breakout.<br />
 +
* Software Skills: Linux kernel driver work.<br />
 +
* Possible Mentors: Andrew Bradford<br />
 +
* Upstream Repository: kernel.org<br />
 +
* References: http://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/offloading-vga-generation-onto-a-coprocessor/
  
''Goal:'' provide a library to interface with GPIO, I2C and SPI on the Beagleboard <br>
+
==Open-AVB support for BeagleBone==
''Hardware skills:'' basic<br>
+
Ethernet AVB is being designed into most next generation automotive audio systems and is starting to be adopted for professional audio environments such as studios. However, most Ethernet AVB stacks are available only as commercial products from competing vendors. The AVNu Alliance, the standards organization for Ethernet AVB, does sponsor the FOSS Open-AVB project (https://github.com/AVnu/Open-AVB). Open-AVB currently only has proof-of-concept support for x86 and the I210 Ethernet NIC. AM335x and AM57xx have the necessary silicon support to support Ethernet AVB.
''Software skills:'' C<br>
 
''Possible mentor:'' ???
 
  
==Adding Sense to Beagle==
+
* Goal: Development can target two BeagleBones, supporting each in Open-AVB as both talker and listener. The effort will involve abstracting some of the x86 specific code in Open-AVB for ARMv7, enabling Open-AVB framing over CPSW Ethernet, and handling audio sourcing/sinking on each BeagleBone. The end goal is to use gstreamer to pass audio and/or video from a BeagleBone acting as a talker to a BeagleBone acting as a listener while complying with the AVB standards.
Sensory aware applications are becoming more mainstream with the release of the Apple iPhone.  This project would combine both HW and SW to add sensory awareness to beagle. First, additional modules such as GPS, 3-axis accelerometers, Gyroscopes, Temperature Sensors, Humidity Sensors, Pressure Sensors, etc, would be added to beagle to compliment the microphone input in order to allow sensing of the real world environment. Then SW APIs would need to be layered on top to allow easy access to the sensory data for use by applications.
+
* Hardware Skills: Basic skills in setting up Beaglebones and network cabling.
 +
* Software Skills: Ability to work in kernel and userspace in C. This will require work both in the AM335x Ethernet driver and the userspace Open-AVB project.
 +
* Possible Mentors: Matt Porter
 +
* Upstream Repository: https://git.kernel.org/cgit/ and https://github.com/AVnu/Open-AVB
 +
* References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Video_Bridging
  
The Freespace module is already working with the BeagleBoard as are many other sensors. This project should seek to summarize how to connect as many sensors as possible on one place on the eLinux wiki.
+
==StratchX extension for BoneScript==
 +
[http://scratchx.org ScratchX] is a graphical programming tool for new programmers. [http://beagleboard.org/bonescript BoneScript] provides the ability to directly communicate with the I/O functions of a BeagleBone directly from within the browser. For examples see my presentation on [http://beagleboard.org/project/javascript-tricks/ JavaScript tricks]. ScratchX provides a fairly simple [http://scratchx.org/#faq-scratch-extensions extension mechanism] for which it would be easy to add BoneScript support.
  
''Possible mentor:'' Mark Yoder
+
==BeagleBone Blue APIs==
 +
* Goal: To create easy-to-use APIs for the hardware on the [http://beagleboard.org/blue BeagleBone Blue]. This should consist of developing/improving kernel drivers for the on-board sensors, developing a kernel driver for the PRU servo driver, etc., then reimplementing the [http://www.strawsondesign.com/#!manual-dc-motors Strawson APIs] to use these kernel drivers. If time allows, APIs could also be implemented in Bonescript and/or PyBBIO.
 +
* Hardware Skills: Some soldering, prototyping (hooking up and testing motors, etc.)
 +
* Software Skills: C, Linux kernel drivers, possibly PRU C or assembly, Device Tree
 +
* Possible Mentors: Alex Hiam, Deepak Karki
 +
* Upstream Repository: [https://github.com/beagleboard/linux beagleboard/Linux]
 +
* References: [https://github.com/StrawsonDesign/Robotics_Cape_Installer Strawson software]
  
==CarPC API and implementation==
+
==BBB-based Serial Terminal Server==
Creating a set of APIs and libraries allowing for rapid deployment of flexible modular CarPC environments. The project is about creating toolkit for the enthusiasts easying the creation of beagleboard-based customized carputers, covering the hardware interaction and providing an object-oriented interface to both rich input data (GPS data, maps, OBD and similar buses, voice control, cameras, internet data on traffic, variety of HID input sources, et cetera) and different output options randing from a trivial alphanumeric LCD panel to multiple displays with personal audio jacks. Ideally, this would drastically lower the entry barrier into carputer programming drawing more developpers in and abstracting them from hardware implementation, in the same time allowing the freedom of component choices which would promote DIY carputer asssembly. The code should as well be as compatible as possible with existing Linux CarPC projects(LinuxICE) and new idustry initiative GenIVI (which aims at using MeeGo).
+
Often in embedded development it is valuable to have a serial terminal server which can retain a serial port connection along with buffered past I/O separate from a typical host PC, either for longer term logging of serial port data or to enable remote management of a device via serial port. Commercial units which have this capability are very expensive.  The BeagleBones have 4 highly capable UARTs exposed besides UART0 through the cape connectors and a simple cape hardware could easily enable a BeagleBone to physically have all the interfaces needed to be a serial terminal server. The cape hardware does not need to be created for this project to go forward, so long as other devices which connected to the BeagleBone terminal server used 3.3 V UARTs themselves.
  
=Community infrastructure projects=
+
This project would begin with a survey of existing software which could be adapted to provide a terminal server experience (for example something as simple as using GNU screen with some adaptations over an SSH connection to the BeagleBone) and then proceed to create software changes needed to enable such operation in an easy to use and deploy way.  This resulting (or found) software would likely end up being generic for Linux based serial terminal serversThe end result of this project should likely be an easy to deploy SD card image to enable someone to setup a low cost serial terminal server based on a BeagleBone in only a few minutes.
==Updating BeagleBoard.org UI/backend==
 
The BeagleBoard.org website is currently written in JavaScript using Helma and makes use of several Java components through JavaScriptOne advantage of this is you can actually run an instance of the BeagleBoard.org web server on the BeagleBoard with a full clone of the website.
 
* Improve OpenID support
 
* Create Ubiquity scripts to simplify page editing
 
* Add tags to project entries and improve the views
 
* Import RSS feed items into pages for ranking/tagging
 
* Add microblogging support integrated with the IRC channel
 
** See http://code.google.com/p/beagleboard/issues/detail?id=46
 
** Enable users to store http://beagleboard.org/user user profiles
 
** Have the chat show Twitter and Identica update
 
* Translate BeagleBoard.org into other languages
 
** http://code.google.com/p/beagleboard/issues/detail?id=4
 
* Update the site for the BeagleBoard-xM launch occurring in June
 
  
''Software skills:'' JavaScript, XML, HTML/CSS<br>
+
A reach goal would be to enable the cape hardware and also to potentially provide DC relays which could switch 5-12 V at 2-3 A such that development boards could be powered on and off through the same software interface as is used for the serial communications.  Since hardware is not the focus of GSoC, actual development of such hardware should not be the focus of the project itself.
''Mentor:'' Jason Kridner<br>
 
  
=To be classified=
+
==USB support for HelenOS on BeagleBoard XM and BeagleBone computers==
  
=== BeagleChat ===
+
Implement HelenOS drivers for the USB host/OTG controllers as found on the BeagleBoard XM and BeagleBone single-board computers that will be part of the HelenOS DDF (Device Driver Framework) and USB stack.
'''Easy'''
 
Video Chat Client on Beagle Board. Porting Ekiga (www.ekiga.org) - an open source VoIP and video conferencing application for GNOME. The client should be able to talk to ekiga software running on PC as well as another beagle board. Optimizations would involve porting audio and video codecs on Ekiga to DSP plus supporting video streaming over USB for webcam support.
 
  
=Raw ideas that need to be fleshed out=
+
HelenOS is a portable microkernel-based multiserver operating system designed and implemented from scratch. It decomposes key operating system functionality such as file systems, networking, device drivers and graphical user interface into a collection of fine-grained user space components that interact with each other via message passing. A failure or crash of one component does not directly harm others. HelenOS is therefore flexible, modular, extensible, fault tolerant and easy to understand.
Some additional ideas can be found on the [[BeagleBoard/contest|BeagleBoard contest page]] and the [http://beagleboard.org/project BeagleBoard project page].
 
  
* RTEMS BSP for Beagle board: '''Medium''' [http://www.rtems.org RTEMS] is a free real-time operating system.  This project would require developing an RTEMS Board Support Package for the Beagle board. The Beagle board has come up multiple times in our community as a excellent device for students, hobbyists, and a starting point for customized boards. I am the maintainer of RTEMS and would be willing to co-mentor this with someone from the Beagle board community. --[[User:JoelSherrill|JoelSherrill]] 23:12, 18 March 2010 (UTC)
+
HelenOS features basic support for the popular BeagleBoard XM and BeagleBone single-board computers. HelenOS also has its own USB stack, but because BeagleBone uses a non-standard USB host controller and BeagleBoard XM comes with a (sometimes) flaky EHCI host controller, and a non-standard OTG USB controller, HelenOS cannot unfold its full potential on these platforms, where most of the peripherals are meant to be attached via USB (mouse, keyboard, network, etc.).
  
* Spectrum analyzer using the DSP: '''Medium'''  Write a program that uses the DSP to take an alsa input and to all the math and a GUI on the arm that display the realtime spectrum. The DSP side needs to use xdais so other DSP programs can run at the same time.
+
* Goal: Implement HelenOS drivers for the BeagleBone USB OTG controller, BeagleBoard XM OTG controller and get the HelenOS EHCI driver running on BeagleBoard XM
 +
* Hardware Skills: basic comprehension of the various USB connectors, interfaces and host controllers, studying hardware documentation
 +
* Software Skills: driver development, USB stack development, C, non-POSIX
 +
* Possible Mentors: Jakub Jermář
 +
* Upstream Repository: https://code.launchpad.net/~jan.vesely/helenos/usb, bzr://bzr.helenos.org/mainline
 +
* References: [http://www.helenos.org HelenOS home page], [http://www.helenos.org/ticket/647 HelenOS tickets for this idea], [http://www.helenos.org/wiki/DeveloperDocs/Peripherals#USB HelenOS collection of documentation pointers on USB peripherals], [https://code.launchpad.net/~jan.vesely/helenos/usb HelenOS USB 2.0 branch], [http://helenos-usb.sourceforge.net/manual/ Description of the original HelenOS USB stack], [http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard_Community#USB USB on BeagleBoard], [http://beagleboard.org/beagleboard-xm BeagleBoard XM home], [http://beagleboard.org/bone BeagleBone home], [http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Usb-am335x-quick-start Usb-am335x-quick-start], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_On-The-Go Wikipedia article about USB OTG]
  
* Porting open-source codec to DSP (MadPlay, VLC, some of the mplayer codecs …: '''Medium'''
+
== FlightGear remote Cockpit on BBB ==
  
* OpenGL DSP acceleration: '''Hard'''  Research and implement OpenGL ES using the DSP on beagleboard. The DSP side needs to use xdais so other DSP programs can run at the same time. Can take a look at Vincent OpenGL ES open source implementation and add DSP to it
+
[http://www.flightgear.org/ FlightGear] is a free and open source cross-platform flight simulator platform or game. It support multiple computer and devices, so that we could build our remote cockpit at home, a [http://www.flightgear.org/Projects/747-JW/ example like this].
  
* beagle as DLNA/upnp renderer, server, controller, or media player.
+
However, this project will only build a small prototype panel for FlightGear. It will use a small touch screen to display basic instruments for Aircraft - Atitude Indictor, Airspeed, Altitude and Heading, and two virtrual control "handle" for landing gear and flaps. The BBB will proform as a remote control device, it will connect to main flightgear instance FDM via network, and it could also connect to control devices or joystick/pedals  as a control center.
  
* Wiimote + Pico Projector + 3D art tool
+
On the other hand, when the remote panel is built, it could be used for Quadcopter and ROV remote control in the future.
  
* OpenCL implementation that uses the DSP and/or NEON (could be used as framework for any dsp/neon acceleration)
+
* Goal: Build a prototype panel for FlightGear
 +
* Hardware Skills: interfaces and host controllers, studying hardware documentation
 +
* Software Skills: UI design and programing (C++, Qt, Python any availiable will okay), XML parse and basic flight theory.
 +
* Possible Mentors: Tong Hui
 +
* Upstream Repository: [https://github.com/saul-rodriguez/PanelBoeing A Qt Project]
 +
* References: [http://flightgear.sourceforge.net/getstart-en/getstart-en.html FlightGear Manual], [https://sites.google.com/site/raspberryflightgear/home FlightGear Panel on a Rpi], [http://garagelab.com/profiles/blogs/tutorial-flightgear-with-arduino Arduino control aircraft in FlightGear]
  
* Video extender – take in video via usb webcam, compress it using video encoder, stream it over ethernet (could be like a security camera).  Could/should be implemented using DLNA protocols (e.g. view on ps3 or tv's).
+
=Previous ideas=
 +
* [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas-2015]]
 +
* [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas-2014]]
 +
* [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas-2013]]
 +
* [[BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas-2012]]
  
 
=Mentors=
 
=Mentors=
 
 
{| border="1"
 
{| border="1"
 
! Name
 
! Name
Line 240: Line 210:
 
| English
 
| English
 
| -
 
| -
| US Central
+
| US Eastern
| web development, C, shell/perl scripting
+
| JavaScript, C, u-boot
| wiring, timing diagrams, basic debug
 
| infrastructure improvements
 
|-
 
| Leo Estevez
 
| TBD
 
| Spanish
 
| English, French, German(basic)
 
| US Central
 
| C, mobile operating systems
 
 
| wiring, timing diagrams, basic debug
 
| wiring, timing diagrams, basic debug
| computer vision
+
| BoneScript development
 
|-
 
|-
 
| Hunyue Yau
 
| Hunyue Yau
 
| ds2
 
| ds2
 
| English
 
| English
|
+
| -
 
| US Pacific
 
| US Pacific
| Android, C, Linux, scripting
+
| Android, C, Linux, scripting, Kernel
| Yes
+
| schematics, wiring, EE details
|-
+
| Kernel/HW
| Frans Meulenbroeks
 
| eFfeM
 
| Dutch
 
| English, basic understanding of German
 
| CET
 
| C, User Interface, Linux, booting, performance improvement, networking technology
 
| no
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Kevin Hilman
+
| Anuj Deshpande
| khilman
+
| anujdeshpande
 
| English
 
| English
| fluent in French
+
| -
| US Pacific
+
| UTC+530
|-
+
| C, Python, Golang
| Luis Gustavo Lira
+
| Schematics
 +
| Arduino, Android
 
|
 
|
| Spanish
 
| fluent in English and French)
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Koen Kooi
+
| Andrew Bradford
| _koen_
+
| bradfa
| Dutch
+
| English
| Fluent in English
+
| -
| CET
+
| US Eastern
| Buildsystem integration, distribution
+
| C, Linux, U-Boot
| not really
+
| KiCad, some RF
|  
+
| DSP/PRU/M4 communication from Linux, wifi, USB gadget
 
|-
 
|-
| Katie Roberts-Hoffman
+
| Alex Hiam
| katier
+
| alexhiam
 
| English
 
| English
| nope
+
| -
| US Central
+
| US Eastern
| Android, DSP integration (Link/CE/etc)
+
| Python, C, programming...
| nope
+
| schematics, design, debugging, prototyping
 +
| PRU, high-level userspace stuffs, kernel (device drivers?) X15?
 
|-
 
|-
| Mans Rullgard
+
| Vladimir Pantelic
| mru
+
| av500
| English, Swedish
+
| German
| Some German
+
| English
| GMT
+
| CET
| C, Assembler
+
| C, Android, embedded programming
|
+
| schematics, design, debugging, prototyping
|
+
| kernel, Android, dsp
 
|-
 
|-
| Mike Zucchi
+
| Robert Manzke
| notzed
+
| rma
 +
| German
 
| English
 
| English
|
+
| CET
| Australia/South
+
| C, kernel, audio interfacing
| C, Assembly, Java, SIMD.  Applications, libraries, GUI, multi-threading.
+
| schematics, design, debugging, prototyping
| not much
+
| kernel, audio, dsp
|
 
|-
 
| Philip Balister
 
| Crofton
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Robert Nelson
+
| Steve Arnold
| rcn-ee
+
| nerdboy
 
| English
 
| English
 
| -
 
| -
| US Central
+
| PST8PDT
| C, Shell Scripting, Deb packaging
+
| Python, kernel/bootloader, OS, sensor interfaces
|
+
| design, debugging, prototyping
|
+
| kernel, sensors/data acquisition/processing
 
|-
 
|-
| Soren Steen Christensen
+
| Matt Porter
| soren.ssc
+
| mdp
| Danish
+
| English
| Fluent in English and some German
+
| C :)
| CET
+
| US Eastern
| C/C++, ASM, Device Drivers
+
| U-Boot, kernel, drivers, upstream, AVB, networking/ipcs
| OMAP chip, HW design, Low level development & debuging
+
| Schematic review, part selection, debugging
| All kind of HW and low level SW stuff
+
| kernel, upstreaming, AVB, automotive
 
|-
 
|-
| Mark Yoder
+
| Kumar Abhishek
| yoder
+
| Abhishek_
|
+
| English, Hindi
|-
+
| -
| Jeff Osier-Mixon
+
| IST,+0530
| jefro
+
| C, Kernel, PRU related, embedded
| English (US)
+
| Yes
|
+
| kernel, PRUs, X15
| US Pacific
 
|  
 
|  
 
| documentation
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Laine Walker-Avina
+
| Jakub Jermář
| Ceriand
+
| jermar
 +
| Czech
 
| English
 
| English
|  
+
| CET
| US Pacific
+
| everything HelenOS, C, Kernel, embedded
| C, Assembly, Buildroot
+
| basic
| USB protocol & logic analyzers, Various JTAG probes
+
| HelenOS USB drivers for BeagleBone and BeagleBoard XM
| OpenOCD, bootloaders, Linux kernel
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Frank Walzer
+
| Deepak Karki
| franktango
+
| karki_
| German
 
 
| English
 
| English
| CET
+
| Hindi, kannada
| C++, OOP
+
| India (IST)
| Debug, JTAG, Interfaces
+
| PyBBIO, PRU programming, basic kernel stuff.
| Graphics, GUI, Build systems
+
| yes
 +
| BeagleBone Blue APIs.
 
|-
 
|-
| Khasim Syed Mohammed
+
| Michael Welling
| khasim
+
| m_w
 
| English
 
| English
| Hindi
+
| -
| India
+
| US Central
| C, C++, Assembly, Linux device drivers, board bring up, bootloaders
+
| C, Linux Kernel, U-Boot, BASH
| Schematic review, board development
+
| KiCad, FPGA, Robotics
 +
| Kernel, Robotics, FPGA
 
|-
 
|-
| Siji Sunny
+
| Tong Hui
| siji
+
| tonghuix
 +
| Chinese
 
| English
 
| English
| Hindi
+
| UTC+8
| India
+
| C, driver, Embedded Programming.
| C,Operating Systems(Ubuntu-Arm,Angstrom,Android,Debian),Open Source Application/GUI Development(Clutter,GTK),RF Programming,Language Computing,Text processing,Unicode,Fonts
+
| KiCAD, schematics, design, debugging, testing
| No
+
| Beaglebone Black, Flightgear
| Language Computing, Text Processing, Operating System, Text To speech ,GUI,Build Systems
 
 
|-
 
|-
| Devaraj Rangasamy
+
| Andrew Henderson
| Deva
+
| hendersa
| Hindi, Tamil
 
 
| English
 
| English
| India
+
| -
| Android, Linux Kernel Base Port
+
| US Eastern
| No
+
| C/C++, ARM asm, Linux, Linux kernel, Android
| Language Computing, Text Processing, Operating System, Text To speech
+
| Prototyping, Eagle PCB
 +
| BeagleBone Black, Android, Linux userspace multimedia
 
|-
 
|-
| Joel Sherrill
+
| Chris Simmonds
| DrJoel
+
| simmondscd
 
| English
 
| English
 
| -
 
| -
| US Central
+
| GMT
| RTEMS maintainer, real-time, cross tools
+
| Android, Linux, U-Boot, kernel, drivers, C, C++, Java
| No
+
| Schematics, basic wiring, debugging
| RTEMS BSP
+
| Android, Hardware support, Real-time
 
|-
 
|-
| Diego Dompe
+
| Name
| ddompe
+
| IRC nickname
| spanish
+
| Native language
| english
+
| Other languages
| GMT -6.00
+
| Timezone
| Expert on most areas of embedded development, Gstreamer, GUI, DSP development
+
| Software help
| No
+
| Hardware help
| GStreamer
+
| Focus projects
 
|}
 
|}
 +
[[BeagleBoard/GSoC/Ideas-2015#Mentors|Previous mentors]]

Latest revision as of 19:14, 13 November 2016


Welcome!

BeagleBoard.org has been accepted as a mentoring organization in the Google Summer of Code for 2016! Below, we've collected project ideas for the GSoC-2016.

What is Google Summer of Code?

Spend your summer break writing code and learning about open source development while earning money! Accepted students work with a mentor and become a part of the open source community. Many become lifetime open source developers! The 2016 student application window is March 14th to 25th.

Google Summer of Code is open to post-secondary students, age 18 and older in most countries.

Read more on the GSoC site BeagleBoard.org landing page and the FAQ.

BeagleBoard.org Background

BeagleBoard.org is a volunteer organization that seeks to advance the state of open-source software on open-source hardware platforms capable of running high-level languages and operating systems (primarily Linux) in embedded environments. Born from taking mobile phone processors and putting them on low-cost boards to build affordable desktop computers, BeagleBoard.org has evolved to focus on the needs of the "maker" community with greater focus on the I/O needed for controlling motors and reading sensors to build things like robots, 3d printers, flying drones, in-car computer systems and much more. Past BeagleBoard.org GSoC projects included creating an interpreter for tiny CPUs, adding SPI and sensor support to Python, an HTML and git based tutorial sharing environment, porting autopilot software to Linux, an open source 100MHz 14-channel logic analyzer, using Android tablets as Linux displays, putting ADC support in Linux under the IIO framework, using Android phones as a network boot source, Running Arduino code on Linux, Robot Operating System support within the Yocto Project build system, Minix I2C support, an RPC framework for heterogeneous processor communication, a transparent USB packet sniffer, ARM optimizations for XBMC, ARM optimizations for FFTs, make-shift pulse-width-modulation and RPC optimizations for OpenCV. BeagleBoard.org has benefited from sponsorship from Texas Instruments, CircuitCo, Digi-Key, element14 and others, but avoids any dependence on that sponsorship for sustaining the effort. The project has evolved over the past few years with over 1,000,000 boards in circulation with developers worldwide and strong roots in the Linaro, Yocto Project, Angstrom Distribution, Debian and Linux communities---and support for running most major Linux distributions including Ubuntu, Android, Fedora, ArchLinux, Gentoo, Buildroot and many more.

BeagleBoard was inspiration for Raspberry Pi[1] and is available for about $50 through over 30 distributors world-wide (and is even available at Micro Center and Radio Shack in the USA), but is more than a throw-away computer. It is an instance of true open hardware, exposing users to the broader world of electronics, demystifying computers and fostering an environment of clones that have changed the industry for good.

Students will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of cross-compiling before being accepted, but support for demonstration is available through the IRC channel that typically has approximately 150 online chatters logged on at any time, most with sufficient experience to explain the process.

Every accepted student will be sent a BeagleBone Black, SeeedStudio BeagleBone Green or BeagleBoard-X15 before the first week of coding for testing their project.

Additional hardware will be provided depending on need and value.

For more information, check out http://beagleboard.org and http://beagleboard.org/brief.

Students looking for ideas

Student proposals can encompass projects inspired from the following list of ideas or can include personal project ideas. Previous Google Summer of Code projects show that the key to success is being passionate about your project, so propose something that is extremely interesting to you, even if it is not on this list. We will be glad to help students develop ideas into projects via the BeagleBoard GSoC IRC or the BeagleBoard-GSoC mailing list. There are many potential project ideas and we will match students to projects based on their interests and help scope the proposals to something that can be completed in the Summer of Code timeframe.

There are more than 500 existing projects listed at http://beagleboard.org/project. If you are interested in any of the projects listed on the BeagleBoard.org projects page, contact the project members to see if there are any aspects of their projects that can be enhanced to create a GSoC project. There are also several ideas on the ECE497 class project idea list. You can also check out last year's idea page.

Mentors wondering where to help

Please start by registering your ideas for student projects below by following the template provided with the existing ideas. Furthermore, scroll down to the bottom and give everyone a bit of information about your expertise and availability by adding yourself to the table. Jason will make final approvals for mentor assignments based on if we first get accepted as a mentoring organization and best matching mentor skill sets with student project ideas deemed valuable to the community.

You will also need be invited by an administrator to register on the GSoC site and request to be a mentor for BeagleBoard.org.

General requirements

All projects have the following basic requirements:

  1. Once accepted, the project must be registered on http://beagleboard.org/project.
  2. All newly generated materials must be released under an open source license.
  3. Individual students shall retain copyright on their works.
  4. Source code generated during the project must be released on github.com (to be cloned to github.com/beagleboard on successful completion).
  5. The registration on http://beagleboard.org/project must include an RSS feed with project announcements and updates at every milestone. Sources for the RSS feed should be blogger.com, wordpress.com, or some other established blog-hosting service with known reliability.
  6. To help you to break your project down into manageable chunks and also to help the project's mentors to better support your efforts, weekly project status reports should be e-mailed to the project's mentors and the organization administrator (Jason Kridner). Each status report should outline:
    1. what was accomplished that week,
    2. any issues that prevented that week's goals from being completed and
    3. your goals for the next week.
  7. Students will provide two recorded audio/video presentations uploaded to youtube or vimeo (screencasts are appropriate), one near the beginning of the project summarizing their project goals and another in the wrap-up phase to summarize their accomplishments. Examples can be found on http://beagleboard.org/gsoc.
  8. Students will demonstrate their ability to cross-compile and utilize version control software by creating a "Hello World" application and generating a pull request to https://github.com/jadonk/gsoc-application/tree/master/ExampleEntryJasonKridner. For assistance, please visit http://beagleboard.org/chat or utilize the beagleboard-gsoc Google Group. The "Hello World" application must print your name and the date out in an ARM Linux environment. Freely available emulators may be used to test your application or you can ask anyone on the chat or mailing list to help you test.
  9. All projects will produce reusable software components and will not be "what–I-built-over-my-summer-vacation" projects. Including a hardware component is welcome, but the project *deliverable* will be software that may be utilized by a wide audience of the BeagleBoard.org community.

Idea template

Description

Goal:
Hardware Skills:
Software Skills:
Possible Mentors:
Upstream Repository:
References:

Ideas

Linux kernel support for embedded devices and interfaces

Improving the state of the Linux kernel, especially with regards to embedded devices and interfaces. Includes improved ARM/OMAP/Sitara platform support, simplifying the development of add-on hardware for embedded systems and exchanging hardware connectivity information with userspace.

Improving the BeagleBone low-latency multi-channel audio system

Based on existing hardware from http://www.creative-technologies.de/linux-based-low-latency-multichannel-audio-system-2/

  • Extend driver architecture to Beagle Board X15 (more computational power for more DSP capabilities), including performance test at CPU load conditions, add DSP library to make use of X15's DSPs
  • Create USB Audio Class 1 and/or 2 http://www.linux-usb.org/gadget/ Gadget Kernel Module, and optimizing throughput latency to allow cape to be used as independent PC soundcard
  • Further optimize available driver for BBG for latency, with focus on ASOC driver
  • Make a real-time audio processor box on beaglebone. Needs HD audio cape, could use PRUs for real-time sound processing (ie, guitar input) and second midi source using alsa or hardware cape. Also like to have pitch/envelope-following synth for analog instrument/mic input.

Heterogeneous co-processor support in open source operating systems and libraries

Enabling usage of DSPs, PRUs, FPGAs, Cortex-Ms, Arduinos, MSP430 launchpads and other attached processing platforms.

Process Sensor Data in Real-Time

  • Need a sonic anemometer for open source weather station (use PRUs to calculate sonic velocity and wind components). Needs ultrasonic ping sensors and mounting framework.
  • Port/implement MAV (drone) optical flow or stereo image processing to PRUs, use "Blue" or Black (via BBIO cape) as Ardupilot platform.

Sample PRU code interfacing with other kernel interfaces

Write sample code to demostrate how data to and from the PRU can be exposed via standard user interfaces. Possible samples include:

  • Expose the PRU as a I2C/UART/SPI etc. The would act as a bitbang I2C master interface that other I2C drivers can leverage.
  • Expose data from the PRU as an IIO, input, and/or character device.

The goal is to show the 2 pieces (kernel + PRU firmware) needed to use the PRU as a "normal" HW. Most likely this will have to use the remote proc interface.

Linux userspace support of embedded devices and interfaces in high-level languages

Improving the Bonescript JavaScript library, the PyBBIO Python library, Userspace Arduino, web-based interface libraries, examples or alternatives in other languages.

For PyBBIO this could include support for the latest 4.1 Linux kernel (see 4.1 milestone here), addressing open issues, adding new features and device drivers, etc..

BeagleSat Platform Integration

  • Goal: Integrate BeagleSat "satellite" platform into existing ArduPilot framework, including previous GSoC BeagleSat magnetometer application; BeagleBone blue has most of the required hardware, and black is already a supported hardware platform for ardupilot (via BBMini or Proto capes), however, ArduPilot does not have a satellite vehicle platform (should probably be derived from ArduCopter).
  • Hardware Skills: soldering/prototyping, serial/debug, sensors
  • Software Skills: high-level language skills (Python, C, etc), some knowledge of micro-controller compilers and targets, kernel config/programming (some)
  • Possible Mentors: Steve Arnold, Alexander Hiam
  • Upstream Repository: BeagleSat , BeaglePilot , BBMini
  • References: BeagleBone Blue board features , Building (ardupilot) for BeagleBone Black on Linux , MAVLink Commands

Improving initial experience for novice developers

Improving the methods for communicating how to build projects, improving the out-of-box experience for novices and consolidating support for simplified home manufacturing (CNC, 3D printers, laser cutters, pick-and-place machines, etc.), drones/bots (ROS, IMU, video streaming, etc.) or other common tasks.

SPI Flash Emulator (possibly via PRU)

Often in embedded devices, SPI NOR flash is being used more and more as the main non-volatile memory due to cost and technical abilities, but developing software and firmware for embedded devices which use SPI NOR flash as their main non-volatile memory often results in very slow code-compile-test sequences. This is due to SPI NOR flash's very slow erase and write times even when using a fast programmer like a Dediprog SF100 or Tin Can Tools SPI Hook. Typically, developers will purchase a SPI NOR flash emulator in order to speed development, as programming the emulator's memory can take 1% of the time it takes to program an actual SPI flash part which greatly improves the code-compile-test sequence throughput. However, typical emulators like this often cost upwards of $1000 or more. Creating a lower cost SPI NOR flash emulator which uses the McSPI interface on AM335x or the PRU to handle the physical SPI slave interface and Linux's USB gadget capabilities to load the data from a PC host would result in a much lower cost but high performance SPI NOR flash emulator.

Initial development likely could be done using breadboard circuits without needing any special cape hardware. Development and testing could use a single BBB to act as both the emulator and the target, such as having the emulator portion expose a 64 Mb (8 MB) emulated SPI flash and then have the normal AM335x SPI host port access it as a block device or through spidev. Longer term, special cape hardware could be designed to support level shifting but initial development should not require any special PCB.

Since the McSPI interface on AM335x can only operate at up to 16 MHz in slave mode (even in OPP100, it's slower in OPP50), it will first need to be evaluated if using a PRU is the best course of action or if just using the McSPI interface would be a better choice.

  • Goal: Create a generic SPI slave framework in Linux with McSPI as the first hardware layer and a SPI flash emulator as the first protocol driver.
  • Hardware Skills: General breadboarding with jumper wires.
  • Software Skills: Linux kernel C programming.
  • Possible Mentors: Andrew Bradford
  • Upstream Repository:kernel.org
  • References:

PRU Framebuffer

Like was done before on AM18xx (http://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/offloading-vga-generation-onto-a-coprocessor/) but bring the capability to AM335x. There is value in having a PRU video output system as some newer TI SoC have many PRU but no video output (such as AM5716) and sometimes the way pinouts work for a given design, the normal video output pins on a SoC may not be usable but a PRU may be able to reach usable pins.

  • Goal: PRU firmware which can drive a TTL LCD panel at a single or multiple standard resolutions along with Linux framebuffer driver enablement and communications to the PRU for both sending/receiving messages and sending of image data.
  • Hardware Skills: Ability to jumper wire BBB to an off the shelf TTL LCD panel breakout.
  • Software Skills: Linux kernel driver work.
  • Possible Mentors: Andrew Bradford
  • Upstream Repository: kernel.org
  • References: http://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/offloading-vga-generation-onto-a-coprocessor/

Open-AVB support for BeagleBone

Ethernet AVB is being designed into most next generation automotive audio systems and is starting to be adopted for professional audio environments such as studios. However, most Ethernet AVB stacks are available only as commercial products from competing vendors. The AVNu Alliance, the standards organization for Ethernet AVB, does sponsor the FOSS Open-AVB project (https://github.com/AVnu/Open-AVB). Open-AVB currently only has proof-of-concept support for x86 and the I210 Ethernet NIC. AM335x and AM57xx have the necessary silicon support to support Ethernet AVB.

  • Goal: Development can target two BeagleBones, supporting each in Open-AVB as both talker and listener. The effort will involve abstracting some of the x86 specific code in Open-AVB for ARMv7, enabling Open-AVB framing over CPSW Ethernet, and handling audio sourcing/sinking on each BeagleBone. The end goal is to use gstreamer to pass audio and/or video from a BeagleBone acting as a talker to a BeagleBone acting as a listener while complying with the AVB standards.
  • Hardware Skills: Basic skills in setting up Beaglebones and network cabling.
  • Software Skills: Ability to work in kernel and userspace in C. This will require work both in the AM335x Ethernet driver and the userspace Open-AVB project.
  • Possible Mentors: Matt Porter
  • Upstream Repository: https://git.kernel.org/cgit/ and https://github.com/AVnu/Open-AVB
  • References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Video_Bridging

StratchX extension for BoneScript

ScratchX is a graphical programming tool for new programmers. BoneScript provides the ability to directly communicate with the I/O functions of a BeagleBone directly from within the browser. For examples see my presentation on JavaScript tricks. ScratchX provides a fairly simple extension mechanism for which it would be easy to add BoneScript support.

BeagleBone Blue APIs

  • Goal: To create easy-to-use APIs for the hardware on the BeagleBone Blue. This should consist of developing/improving kernel drivers for the on-board sensors, developing a kernel driver for the PRU servo driver, etc., then reimplementing the Strawson APIs to use these kernel drivers. If time allows, APIs could also be implemented in Bonescript and/or PyBBIO.
  • Hardware Skills: Some soldering, prototyping (hooking up and testing motors, etc.)
  • Software Skills: C, Linux kernel drivers, possibly PRU C or assembly, Device Tree
  • Possible Mentors: Alex Hiam, Deepak Karki
  • Upstream Repository: beagleboard/Linux
  • References: Strawson software

BBB-based Serial Terminal Server

Often in embedded development it is valuable to have a serial terminal server which can retain a serial port connection along with buffered past I/O separate from a typical host PC, either for longer term logging of serial port data or to enable remote management of a device via serial port. Commercial units which have this capability are very expensive. The BeagleBones have 4 highly capable UARTs exposed besides UART0 through the cape connectors and a simple cape hardware could easily enable a BeagleBone to physically have all the interfaces needed to be a serial terminal server. The cape hardware does not need to be created for this project to go forward, so long as other devices which connected to the BeagleBone terminal server used 3.3 V UARTs themselves.

This project would begin with a survey of existing software which could be adapted to provide a terminal server experience (for example something as simple as using GNU screen with some adaptations over an SSH connection to the BeagleBone) and then proceed to create software changes needed to enable such operation in an easy to use and deploy way. This resulting (or found) software would likely end up being generic for Linux based serial terminal servers. The end result of this project should likely be an easy to deploy SD card image to enable someone to setup a low cost serial terminal server based on a BeagleBone in only a few minutes.

A reach goal would be to enable the cape hardware and also to potentially provide DC relays which could switch 5-12 V at 2-3 A such that development boards could be powered on and off through the same software interface as is used for the serial communications. Since hardware is not the focus of GSoC, actual development of such hardware should not be the focus of the project itself.

USB support for HelenOS on BeagleBoard XM and BeagleBone computers

Implement HelenOS drivers for the USB host/OTG controllers as found on the BeagleBoard XM and BeagleBone single-board computers that will be part of the HelenOS DDF (Device Driver Framework) and USB stack.

HelenOS is a portable microkernel-based multiserver operating system designed and implemented from scratch. It decomposes key operating system functionality such as file systems, networking, device drivers and graphical user interface into a collection of fine-grained user space components that interact with each other via message passing. A failure or crash of one component does not directly harm others. HelenOS is therefore flexible, modular, extensible, fault tolerant and easy to understand.

HelenOS features basic support for the popular BeagleBoard XM and BeagleBone single-board computers. HelenOS also has its own USB stack, but because BeagleBone uses a non-standard USB host controller and BeagleBoard XM comes with a (sometimes) flaky EHCI host controller, and a non-standard OTG USB controller, HelenOS cannot unfold its full potential on these platforms, where most of the peripherals are meant to be attached via USB (mouse, keyboard, network, etc.).

FlightGear remote Cockpit on BBB

FlightGear is a free and open source cross-platform flight simulator platform or game. It support multiple computer and devices, so that we could build our remote cockpit at home, a example like this.

However, this project will only build a small prototype panel for FlightGear. It will use a small touch screen to display basic instruments for Aircraft - Atitude Indictor, Airspeed, Altitude and Heading, and two virtrual control "handle" for landing gear and flaps. The BBB will proform as a remote control device, it will connect to main flightgear instance FDM via network, and it could also connect to control devices or joystick/pedals as a control center.

On the other hand, when the remote panel is built, it could be used for Quadcopter and ROV remote control in the future.

Previous ideas

Mentors

Name IRC nickname Native language Other languages Timezone Software help Hardware help Focus projects
Jason Kridner jkridner English - US Eastern JavaScript, C, u-boot wiring, timing diagrams, basic debug BoneScript development
Hunyue Yau ds2 English - US Pacific Android, C, Linux, scripting, Kernel schematics, wiring, EE details Kernel/HW
Anuj Deshpande anujdeshpande English - UTC+530 C, Python, Golang Schematics Arduino, Android
Andrew Bradford bradfa English - US Eastern C, Linux, U-Boot KiCad, some RF DSP/PRU/M4 communication from Linux, wifi, USB gadget
Alex Hiam alexhiam English - US Eastern Python, C, programming... schematics, design, debugging, prototyping PRU, high-level userspace stuffs, kernel (device drivers?) X15?
Vladimir Pantelic av500 German English CET C, Android, embedded programming schematics, design, debugging, prototyping kernel, Android, dsp
Robert Manzke rma German English CET C, kernel, audio interfacing schematics, design, debugging, prototyping kernel, audio, dsp
Steve Arnold nerdboy English - PST8PDT Python, kernel/bootloader, OS, sensor interfaces design, debugging, prototyping kernel, sensors/data acquisition/processing
Matt Porter mdp English C :) US Eastern U-Boot, kernel, drivers, upstream, AVB, networking/ipcs Schematic review, part selection, debugging kernel, upstreaming, AVB, automotive
Kumar Abhishek Abhishek_ English, Hindi - IST,+0530 C, Kernel, PRU related, embedded Yes kernel, PRUs, X15
Jakub Jermář jermar Czech English CET everything HelenOS, C, Kernel, embedded basic HelenOS USB drivers for BeagleBone and BeagleBoard XM
Deepak Karki karki_ English Hindi, kannada India (IST) PyBBIO, PRU programming, basic kernel stuff. yes BeagleBone Blue APIs.
Michael Welling m_w English - US Central C, Linux Kernel, U-Boot, BASH KiCad, FPGA, Robotics Kernel, Robotics, FPGA
Tong Hui tonghuix Chinese English UTC+8 C, driver, Embedded Programming. KiCAD, schematics, design, debugging, testing Beaglebone Black, Flightgear
Andrew Henderson hendersa English - US Eastern C/C++, ARM asm, Linux, Linux kernel, Android Prototyping, Eagle PCB BeagleBone Black, Android, Linux userspace multimedia
Chris Simmonds simmondscd English - GMT Android, Linux, U-Boot, kernel, drivers, C, C++, Java Schematics, basic wiring, debugging Android, Hardware support, Real-time
Name IRC nickname Native language Other languages Timezone Software help Hardware help Focus projects

Previous mentors