Olin Aquatic Robotic Systems

Git repository for the Olin Aquatic Robotic Systems team. Learn how to do things in our wiki.

For information about our team, blog updates and more, visit our website at olinaquabots.com.

Setting up your computer

In order to run OARS code, you need the following things setup on your computer:

1. Ubuntu (14.04 highly recommended)
   • test by running lsb_release -a in a terminal
2. ROS (indigo recommended)
   • test by running rosversion -d in a terminal
3. A properly-configured catkin workspace
   • test by running echo $ROS_PACKAGE_PATH in a terminal. The result should include /home/yourname/catkin_ws/src
   • If this fails, go to Appendix A to debug and fix it.
4. git (any version fine)
   • test by running git --version in a terminal
5. V-REP (educational version, ≥3.3.2)
   • test by running a command that is yet to be determined in a terminal
6. the oars-roboboat git repository in your catkin_ws/src folder
   • test by running roscd oars_pkg in a terminal
7. All of the dependencies of the oars packages

• test by running

rosdep update
rosdep --ignore-src check --from-paths $(rospack find oars_pkg)/..

• fix by running

sudo apt-get update
rosdep --ignore-src install --from-paths $(rospack find oars_pkg)/..

Running the Code

Jankboat

1. Turn eveything on (e-stop can remain off)
2. Connect several times via SSH
3. Run relevant scripts on boat
   • roscore
   • roslaunch oars_pkg core.launch
   • rosrun oars_pkg course_tf_handler.py _config:=courses/sample_course.json
   • When you're ready: rosrun oars_pkg planner.py test1
4. Setup your computer with ROS_IP, ROS_MASTER_URI, and then...
   • roslaunch oars_pkg joystick.launch

Tugboat

1. Turn the tugboat on

   • The Raspberry Pi should be powered from a USB power bank

2. Connect to the tugboat via SSH

   • Connect to the OLIN-ROBOTICS WiFI network (password R0B0TS-RULE)

   • Visit https://7a7b657d70.dataplicity.io/ and find the "inet addr" starting with 192.168.*.*

   • In Terminal, connect to the Raspberry Pi using the command ssh pi@192.168.**.** (with the IP address from above)

     1. The password is raspberry

3. Update the code on the tugboat to match what you want to test

   • in the ssh session

   • roscd oars_pkg

   • git checkout master (or whatever branch you are working on)

   • git pull

4. Run the code on the boat computer (over SSH)

   • In one tab: roscore

   • In another tab, launch one of the launch files beginning with app_. These correspond to different modes of operation (e.g. piloting Jankboat 1 around obstacle course A, piloting the tugboat in search of an underwater sound's source). For example, run roslaunch oars_pkg app_tugboat.launch to pilot the tugboat.

5. (Optional) Use a joystick to manually control the boat. Note: All of these commands should be run on your computer, not on the boat (via SSH).

   a) Plug in the controller to your computer via USB

   b) Tell your computer that a ROS master is running on the tugboat: export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://<tugboat_ip_address>:11311

   c) Tell ROS what your IP address is: export ROS_IP=<your_ip_address>

   d) Launch the necessary nodes: roslaunch oars_pkg joystick.launch

   • If you're running into trouble, make sure your computer can see the joystick by running ls /dev/input/js*. (There may be multiple js# devices on your computer, so you might want to try disconnecting the joystick, running the aforementioned command, plugging the joystick back in, and running the command again to make sure a new device showed up.)

   • If the joystick isn’t js0, run roslaunch oars_pkg joystick.launch dev:=/dev/input/js# (where the # is replaced by the correct number).

Appendix A: Getting your catkin_ws setup

Step 1: Do you have a catkin_ws folder?

In a terminal type cd ~/catkin_ws/src

• If it works, you have a catkin_ws folder already, continue to Step 2

• If it doesn’t work, follow the instructions here, then continue to Step 2

Step 2: Make your catkin_ws folder the default ROS location

In a terminal, type gedit ~/.bashrc

In the resulting text file, add the following two lines to the bottom of the file, if they aren’t there:

source /opt/ros/indigo/setup.bash source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash

This file is loaded every time you open a terminal, so it stores the "default" location of your catkin workspace. Any code in the ~/catkin_ws/src directory will now be useable by ROS (once you close and reopen your terminal)