Creating an intelligent social robot requires several embedded processors running intelligent software.  The PandaBoard offers a power Linux-running single-board computer equipped with WiFi, USB and HDMI, all in a small form factor.  In this post, I will show the reader the proper steps of installing Ubuntu on PandaBoard.

First, you need the proper Ubuntu loaded onto your SD card. You will want a version optimized for OMAP4. OMAP, which stands for Open Multimedia Applications Platform, is a series of processors, developed by Texas Instruments, for portable/mobile devices, including PandaBoard.

You can find preinstalled OMAP4 images here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ARM/OMAP

Head to the /release/ page for the latest desktop image (12.04: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/12.04/release/) and find the link to “Texas Instruments OMAP4 (Hard-Float) preinstalled desktop image,” under “Preinstalled desktop image.” For 12.04, the filename should look something like ubuntu-12.04-preinstalled-desktop-armhf+omap4.img.gz.

After downloading, you will write the OMAP4 Ubuntu file onto an SD card (at least 4 GB). Installation instructions can be found here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ARM/OmapDesktopInstall

With a preinstalled OMAP4 Ubuntu on your SD card, just pop it into your PandaBoard. With a power supply plugged in, a USB keyboard/mouse, and an HDMI cable connecting your PandaBoard to a monitor, you now have a fully functional (albeit slow) Ubuntu computer!

You made find this resources from the PandaBoard website helpful: http://pandaboard.org/content/resources/getting-started