ROS-kobuki-RPI

Learn ROS through the Kobuki mobile robotic base and RaspberryPI on board

Requirements

• Raspberry Pi 2 or 3
• Kobuki
• Ubuntu Mate 16.04 (Raspberry Pi)

Install

1. Configure your Ubuntu repositories to allow "restricted", "universe", and "multiverse".

2. Install OpenSSH server:

   sudo apt install openssh-server
   

3. Setup the RPI to accept software from packages.ros.org :

   sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc ) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list'
   

4. Setup the repository keys:

   sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://ha.pool.sks-keyservers.net:80 --recv-key 421C365BD9FF1F717815A3895523BAEEB01FA116
   

   If you experience issues connecting to the keyserver, you can try substituting hkp://pgp.mit.edu:80 or hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80.

5. Make sure your package index is up-to-date

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt upgrade
   

6. There are many different libraries and tools in ROS. In our case, we use the Desktop one:

   sudo apt install ros-kinetic-desktop
   

   In this installation there are: ROS core, rqt, rviz and robot-generic libraries.

7. Before you can use ROS, you will need to initialize with rosdep , which enables you to easily install all the system dependencies that are needed to compile and run basic ROS core components.

   sudo rosdep init
   rosdep update
   

8. Add the ROS environment variables definitions to your bash session:

   echo "source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc 
   source ~/.bashrc 
   

9. Up to now you have installed what you need to run the core ROS packages. To create and manage your own ROS workspaces, there are various tools and requirements that are distributed separately. Install this tool and other dependencies for building ROS packages:

   sudo apt install python-rosinstall python-rosinstall-generator python-wstool build-essential
   

10. Create and build a catkin building workspace:

    mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src 
    cd ~/catkin_ws 
    catkin_make
    

11. Add the ROS environment variables to your bash session:

    echo "source ~/catkin_ws /devel/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc 
    source ~/.bashrc
    

12. Move your Python source files into the folder “~/catkin_ws/src/kobuki_project” and delete “devel” and “build” into the folder “~/catkin_ws” .

13. Build the packages in the catkin workspace:

    cd ~/catkin_ws catkin_make
    

14. Close the terminal and then open a new one.

15. Install the Kobuki stardard ROS drivers:

    sudo apt install ros-kinetic-kobuki ros-kinetic-kobuki-core
    

16. If not already in the dialout group:

     sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER
    

    then logout and login again (or close and reopen your command shell)

17. Set udev rules:

     rosrun kobuki_ftdi create_udev_rules
    

    Reinsert the Kobuki's USB cable. You should now find it show up at “/dev/kobuki” .

Run your robotic project

1. Launch the main ROS node controlling the Kobuki base:

   roslaunch kobuki_node minimal.launch --screen
   

2. Launch in three different terminals (or screen shell sessions) these three nodes:

   rosrun kobuki_project sense.py   
   ronrun kobuki_project think.py
   rosrun kobuki_project act.py
   

3. From an external PC connect to via ssh with the -Y option (to enable trusted X11 forwarding) to launch the monitor with visual representation of the robot perception

   rosrun kobuki_project monitor.py
   

   If ROS is properly configured, you can also use rviz to visualize more complex robot data , even 3D scans.

Then, if you want to startup you ROS processes as daemons at boot, follow this tutorial from ariandyblog