Task 0 - Instructions (Windows)

This document contains instructions to install the following software/libraries on Windows:

Miniconda for Python 3.10
CoppeliaSim 4.10

The installation of all software/libraries has been tested on Windows 10 and 11. We recommend you to use one of these versions of Windows OS. These software have to be installed ONLY ON 64-bit OS.

1. Miniconda for Python 3.10

In this section, we will be installing Miniconda and use it to create a Python 3.10 virtual environment in next section.
We will be using Python 3.10 in this theme. You don’t have to install Python separately. It comes by default with Miniconda installation.
Conda is a package management system, created specifically to assist working with Python packages in a cross-platform fashion. Conda also has the concept of a virtual environment, which is an independent, self-contained install of Python and packages.
There are two options for getting Conda: Anaconda and Miniconda. You can read in detail about these and which one to prefer, over here: reference1 and reference2.

Note: If you already have Anaconda or Miniconda pre-installed in your system, kindly skip this section and proceed to section B. Verification Steps Miniconda

A. Installation Steps Miniconda

Download Miniconda for Python 3.10 from here (file size - 121.8MB).
Navigate to the downloaded .exefile and double-click it. You would be greeted with a screen as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Miniconda Windows Installer Start
Click on I Agree to accept the terms of agreement.
It is best and recommended to install Miniconda for the local user, which does not require administrator permissions and is the most robust type of installation. Thus, leave the default Just Me selected and click Next.
Leave the destination folder to install Miniconda untouched. Note: If the directory path contains any spaces, it will throw a Warning ! saying that the directory name should not contain spaces but that’s okay, click OK.
At this point, as shown in Figure 2, you have two important options:
- First: You can optionally add Miniconda to your PATH environment variable, if you want to access Miniconda through the Windows Command Prompt. We recommend not adding it, since this can interfere with other software.
- Second: You can register Miniconda as your default Python 3.10 and hence will be detected by other IDEs and tools. We recommend to accept this default check to register Miniconda, unless you plan on installing and running multiple versions of Miniconda or Anaconda.
Figure 2: Miniconda Advanced Installation Options
Click on Install. Now sit back with ease as the installation process will take some time. Click Next when the installation completes. Skip the optional installation of Microsoft Visual Studio Code by clicking Skip, as we will install it manually later.
Un-check the two boxes as shown in Figure 3 and click Finish.

Figure 3: Miniconda Installation Complete
Cheers, Miniconda for Python 3.10 is successfully installed. Let’s verify now.

B. Verification Steps Miniconda

Search for Anaconda Prompt (miniconda3) in Start menu. Open it.
Type the following command in the prompt which has popped up.
Terminal window
```
conda info
```
You will get the information on Miniconda as in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Output of conda info command

Miniconda creates a default Python environment named base at the installation directory, let’s check this out. Type one of the following three commands to find all the existing virtual environments on your system with their path location:
Terminal window
```
conda env list
```
OR
Terminal window
```
conda info --envs
```
OR
Terminal window
```
conda info -e
```
Since for now we just have one default environment base existing, there is one entry in Figure 5. The asterisk sign ” * ”, against the name indicates the current active environment, so it is base in this case.

Figure 5: Output of conda env list command

When any environment is activated, its name appears in round braces (env_name) before the prompt. As in previous step, the (base) appears at the start of the prompt.
To activate the default Python environment that comes with Miniconda installation, type in following in sequence:
Terminal window
```
conda activate base
where python
python
```
You will see output similar to Figure 6. Here, first we invoked the default environment, then checked whether the prompt is able to detect the path of Python that came installed with Miniconda and at last we called the Python interpreter or console. You can see the very first message has Anaconda word which justifies it.

Figure 6: Output of where python and python

The Python version should read 3.10.x — the exact patch version might differ from what’s shown in Figure 6 (captured on an older 3.8 build), and that’s okay. Type exit() to come out of Python console.
Just as we use the command: conda activate env_name to activate the Python environment named env_name; to deactivate any active environment, type: conda deactivate. The (env_name) will now disappear from the start of prompt.
Terminal window
```
conda deactivate
```

C. Setting up a Virtual Environment using Miniconda

Download environment.yml file
Open anaconda prompt and navigate to the directory of environment.yml

Run command

conda env create --name NV_<Team-ID> -f environment.yml

Example:

conda env create --name NV_9999 -f environment.yml

Note: This process may take some time, please be patient!

Run following command to verify new environment setup:
Terminal window
```
conda activate NV_9999
```
Terminal window
```
where python
```
Terminal window
```
python
```

2. CoppeliaSim_Edu_V4_10_0_rev0

In this section, we will install CoppeliaSim Robotics Simulator Platform.
The robot simulator CoppeliaSim is based on a distributed control architecture: each object/model can be individually controlled via an embedded script, a plugin, a ROS or BlueZero node, a remote API client, or a custom solution. This makes CoppeliaSim very versatile and ideal for multi-robot applications. Controllers can be written in C/C++, Python, Java, Lua, Matlab or Octave.
CoppeliaSim is used for fast algorithm development, factory automation simulations, fast prototyping and verification, robotics related education, remote monitoring, safety double-checking, as digital twin, and much more. You can find a feature overview here.
It can be used as a stand-alone application or can easily be embedded into a main client application: its small footprint and elaborate API makes CoppeliaSim an ideal candidate to embed into higher-level applications.

A. Installation Steps CoppeliaSim

Download CoppeliaSim_Edu_V4_10_0_rev0 for Windows 64-bit OS from here (238 MB)
Navigate to the downloaded .exefile and double-click it to install the software.
Once the installation is complete, a shortcut icon to launch the software would have been created on your Desktop. Double-click to launch it. CoppeliaSim will open as shown in Figure-7 with the default scene loaded.

Figure 7 : CoppeliaSim default window

Now you are ready for the testing phase of the software you have installed 😁