- http://brainstorm.mdx.ac.uk - official team website, visit to meet the team!
Repository exclusively for team Brainstorm - Middlesex University of London
All rights reserved © 2020, London, UK
These instructions will get you a copy of the Eurobot project up and running on your local machine for development and testing purposes. See ROS Documentation section for notes on how to deploy and run the project on a Linux.
What things you need to install the software and how to install them
- Ubuntu MATE for the Raspberry Pi - web - Download Ubuntu MATE for Raspberry Pi
- Ubuntu MATE for the Odroix XU-04 - web - Download Ubuntu MATE for Odroid XU-04
- to check system date use
date - to check hardware date use
sudo hwclock
Don't commit any changes to github repo if the date n time is not set correctly
For the versions available, see the tags of this repository and selected branches according to your role in the team. Keep code clean and leave comments in code or/and write brief documentation after each new feature deployed.
- ROS Kinetic ONLY supports Ubuntu 16.04
- Ubuntu MATE ISO image to download for ODROID
- Open SSH - to establish remote connection
- GIT - for version control
- .bashrc file must be edited beforehand in order to run ROS locally on your PC (see section 'ROS: Installation' )
- Ubuntu install of ROS Kinetic RECOMMENDED - wiki.ros tutorial - Installation process in steps
- Shell script .sh installing ROS automaticly NOT RECOMMENDED FOR BEGINNERS
Environment setup
- ROS environment variables are automatically added to your bash session every time a new shell is launched
echo "source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
-
If you have more than one ROS distribution installed, ~/.bashrc must only source the setup.bash for the version you are currently using.
-
If you just want to change the environment of your current shell, instead of the above you can type:
source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.bash
You must have a roscore running in order for ROS nodes to communicate. It is launched using the roscore command.
roscore
- Run ROS in separate terminal and let it be running in the background
- It can be only one instance of ROS running on machine
- To terminate or close safely roscore, in the active terminal type:
CTRL + C
- ROS Cheat Sheet
- ROS V-Useful Tutorials for begginers - explore wiki.ros with tutorials
- ROS communication with Arduino - setup, sensors and much more tuts
- Programming Robots with ROS O'Reilly - 427 pages eBook for download
Provides package list and info
rospackage list
rospackage name_pkg info
Run this to provide dependecies to any script. Minimal.launch provides basic robot functions essential to run any script in order of testing and development
roslaunch pckg_name launch_file_name
roslaunch eurobot_bringup minimal.launch
This package aims to assist with creating simple platform-specific jobs to start your robot’s ROS launch files as a service when its PC/ROBOT powers up.
sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-robot-upstart
- install YOUR launch file [within the src folder]
#rosrun robot_upstart install eurobot_bringup/launch/minimal.launch rosrun robot_upstart install eurobot_bringup/launch/minimal.launch --job eurobot_bringup --user root --rosdistro kinetic --logdir eurobot_bringup/logs
- to complete the installation
sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl start eurobot
- to view output to terminal
sudo tail /var/log/upstart/eurobot.log -n 30
- The basic usage is with the install script, which can be as simple as:
rosrun robot_upstart install eurobot_bringup/launch/base.launch
This will create a job called eurobot on your machine, which launches base.launch. It will start automatically when you next start your machine.
- You can bring it up, down and restart manually:
sudo service eurobot_bringup start
sudo service eurobot_bringup stop
sudo service eurobot_bringup restart
- restarting service using bash alias (if created)
sudo ./restart_eurobot_service.sh
Provides teleoperation using joysticks or keyboard.
roslaunch turtlebot_teleop keyboard_teleop.launch
Provides list and info of nodes
rosnode list
rosnode node_name info
List of supported topic commands: (ordered by importance)
rostopic list print information about active topics
rostopic info <topic-name> print information about active topic
rostopic echo /topic_name or /my_topic/field_name print messages to screen
rostopic pub /topic_name std_msgs/String hello publish data to topic
rostopic type /topic_name print topic type
rostopic hz /topic_name display publishing rate of topic
Class required to minimal run contain all necessary APIs for grippers, experiment, update_robot_score, wait_for_pull_to_start, reset_odometry
need to be initiate
Class with inherited methods from robot_interface.py, contains all methods need for driving to the point, waypoints, get_distance, move_linear, move_angular, move_to,
need to be initiate
Import all robot_interface_advanced.py methods and is the main file with driving commands for a small robot
Commands available in eurobot_task.py :
robot.update_robot_score(40.0)
robot.open_gripper()
robot.close_gripper()
robot.stop_motors()
Provide convenient way to start up multiple nodes and a master, as well as other initialization requirements such as setting parameters.
eurobot_bringup/launch/Eurobot_final.launch
- other launch files running packages/nodes individually or partially
-> minimal.launch
-> nodepkg=”robot_drivers”
-> nodepkg=”robot_state_publisher”
-> sensors.launch
-> web_server.launch
-> eurobot_task.launch
-> eurobot_task.py
Low level code in C++, not need to be changed at all. After every change in code needs to be recompiled by catkin_make
Class DriveTrainManager defines methods related with driving include headers from robot_params.h
set_motion()
reset_encoders()
reset_values()
stop()
set_velocity()
update_odometry()
current_x
current_y
- defines EPOS objects assigned to the wheels, includes headers from epos_drive_manager.h
// epos objects
EposDriveManager left_wheel;
EposDriveManager right_wheel;
Class EposDriveManager methods and definitions
initialize(const std::string device_name, const std::string port_name);
terminate()
reset()
set_rpm(const int motor_rpm)
increment_position(const long delta_position)
get_rpm(int &motor_rpm)
get_position(int &motor_position)
reset_encoders()
stop() // apply brakes to the wheels
// return true if encoder is ineserted .set_inverted when creating object EPOS method
set_inverted();
reset_inverted();
Constance definitions of key paramiters for driving
// using meters, radians, etc. meteric only!
_RB_BASE_WIDTH 0.1714 // to contact center of wheels need to be changed as well
_RB_WHEEL_DIAMETER 0.07
_RB_NUM_OF_ENCODER_COUNTS 16384 // 4096 * 4 // old value
_RB_ABS_GEAR_RATIO (4554.0 / 130.0) // need to be chaged to 1
_RB_INVERT_RIGHT true // find out does it need to be changed or not
- Includes (imports) all nessesery libraries and header files and the Thread. Contains ROS C++ library
Basic driving methods
Extension for Class robot_interface with more advanced driving methods
- contains entire logic of methods defined in epos_drive_manager.h, manages EPOS devices and calculates PIDs
- it uses callbacks listaning on topics for subcribers
- Set the publish rate for Publishers, change according to performance (now it's 10)
int publish_rate;
nh.param<int>("publish_rate", publish_rate, 10)
- creates the ROS Subscribers:
/cmd_vel
/cmd_vel_mux/input/teleop
/reset_drive_train
/initialpose
/update_drive_train_position
- creates the ROS Publisher
/odom
- runs the odometry thread which publish data in while loop to /odom
thread odometry_update_loop(odometry_loop)
- DriveTrainManager instantiation with assigning EPOS devices to "USB0" and "USB1" port
- Creation and functionality of wheel objects
left_wheel = EposDriveManager();
right_wheel = EposDriveManager();
- _RB_INVERT_RIGHT - inverssion of the wheel according to robot build
- DriveTrainManager::update_odometry() - calculations of driving odometry
- In case of Arduino crash - restart the service
- After creating python script make it executable with command: chmod +x script.py
- I can't compile with catkin_make: ⋅⋅⋅ If you want to compile something you need to update the clock (time) ⋅⋅⋅ You must navigate to main workspace directory while you run the command
- roscore is not running, ROS can't locate ROS_MASTER ip adress
⋅⋅⋅ edit bashrc.sh and modify lines:
export ROS_HOSTNAME=127.0.0.1export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://127.0.0.1:11311 - Roscore is running wrong workspace
⋅⋅⋅ to check current workspace type
echo $ROS_PACKAGE_PATH⋅⋅⋅ add workspace patch to bashrc.sh filesource /home/ros/your_workspace/devel/setup.bash
- Visit http://brainstorm.mdx.ac.uk to meet the team
- FESTO
- Maxon Motors
- Rapid Electronics
- PozyX
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details
- Hat tip to anyone whose code was used
- Inspiration
- etc
Our Credo: Show up, Deliver, Be Kind, Repeat