Index

• INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
• RUNNING INSTRUCTIONS
  • RUNNING THE SITL simulation
  • RUNNING THE SIMPLE WEB CONTROLS

INSTALLATION STEPS

INSTALL SITL (software in the loop)

For those who are curious, you can find the ardupilot SITL documentation here

This guide provides the steps to setup the ArduPilot's Software in the Loop (SITL) environment on your raspberry pi.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure your Linux distribution is up-to-date and has `git` and `python3` installed.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install git python3 python3-dev python3-pip
pip3 install future

Step 1: Clone the ArduPilot repository

cd ~/
git clone https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot.git --depth 1
cd ardupilot

Step 2: Update submodules

git submodule update --init --recursive

Step 3: Run the Setup Script

Navigate to the directory where the setup scripts reside and run the appropriate setup script for your environment. For Ubuntu, run:

cd Tools/environment_install
./install-prereqs-ubuntu.sh -y

When the script finishes execution, reload the path:

. ~/.profile

Step 4: Add the `Tools/autotest` directory to your PATH

echo -e "\nexport PATH=$PATH:$HOME/ardupilot/Tools/autotest" >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Step 5: Setup the sim for first use

The ardupilot instructions suggest running the sim with the -w flag on first execution to load all default values. Wait for the build process to fully complete! Once this is commpleted, and you see messages about battery status, you can exit with ctrl+c. Make sure to run this from the ArduSub folder

cd ~/ardupilot/ArduSub/
sim_vehicle.py -w

Note: sim_vehicle.py is located in the ardupilot/Tools/autotest folder

INSTALL SIMPLE WEB CONTROLS (sliders)

First and foremost

1. Fork this repo to your own github account
2. Clone your forked repo to your laptop. Make sure to do so in the home folder

git clone https://github.com/<your-gitname>/simple-web-control.git

INSTALL DEPENDENCIES

Create a new virtual environment and install the dependencies

cd simple-web-control
mkvirtualenv -p python3 simple-web-control
workon simple-web-control
pip install -r requirements.txt

RUN STEPS

RUNNING THE SITL simulation

Find your laptop ip address on the RPi network interface

The simulation will be running on your Raspberry Pi, but QGroundcontrol needs to be launched from your laptop. For the sim to be able to find your laptop, you'll have to specify the ip address of your laptop. This is the ip address on the usb ethernet adapter, not your wlan.

• Click here for instructions on MAC
• Click here for Windows
• For Linux simply type ifconfig in your terminal, and find the adapter starting with enx

Launch the simulator

In the command below, make sure to change the the <hostname> section with the correct name or ip.

cd ArduSub
sim_vehicle.py --vehicle=ArduSub --aircraft="bwsibot" -L RATBeach --out=udp:<hostname>:14550

Finally, launch QGroundcontrol

If you haven't done so yet, you can download it from the QGroundControl's official download page.

RUNNING THE SIMPLE WEB CONTROLS

On the Raspberry Pi

RUN

cd ~/simple-web-control
workon simple-web-control
python sliders.py

ℹ️ This will only work after you started the SITL simulator, or connected the real ROV Keep an eye on the terminal for the output of the script. Wait for the script to verify that the ROV has been armed

On your laptop

• Open a browser and go to http://backseat.local:7860