ROS Installation for Pioneer 3 Robot

OS: Ubuntu 20.04.2

Recommendations

Virtual machine (for mac and windows users)

If using a Mac or Windows OS its recommended that you install a virtual machine using Linux. One option is parallels ( https://www.parallels.com/au/ ). Just follow the install instructions and it will ask what OS you want to install (choose Ubuntu).

Terminal management

ROS requires a several terminal windows to be open at a time. A terminal window manager like tmux is recommend (sudo apt install tmux) as it makes it easier to switch between windows.

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Installation

There are a few things that need to be installed (instructions below):

1. ROS - Using Noetic for this project
2. Catkin - Workspace / build system for ROS
3. ARIA - A ROS package for interfacing with the Pioneer 3 robot
4. AMRISim - A virtual simulator for the Pioneer 3 robot

ROS (Noetic)

Instructions taken from: noetic/Installation/Ubuntu - ROS Wiki

1. Accept packages (apt install ...) 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'

2. Install cURL sudo apt install curl

3. Setup apt keys

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.asc | sudo apt-key add -

4. Update sudo apt update

5. Install full version of ROS noetic

sudo apt install ros-noetic-desktop-full

6. Add the setup script to .bashrc to run every time a new terminal is opened

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

7. Install dependencies to ROS noetic

sudo apt install python3-rosdep python3-rosinstall python3-rosinstall-generator python3-wstool build-essential

8. Install mode dependencies (rosdep)

sudo apt install python3-rosdep

9. Initialize rosdep

sudo rosdep init
rosdep update

Catkin (workspace for ROS)

Instructions taken from: ROS/Tutorials/InstallingandConfiguringROSEnvironment - ROS Wiki

1. Create and build catkin workspace

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

2. Source catkin workspace setup.bash script

source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash
# or (untested but hopefully this works)
echo "source ~/catkin/devel/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

ARIA (ROS internal package for Pioneer 3)

Instructions from this repository: reedhedges/AriaCoda

1. Install requirements (documentation) sudo apt install doxygen

2. Install AriaCoda from source

cd ~/Downloads
git clone https://github.com/reedhedges/AriaCoda
cd AriaCoda
make
sudo make install

AMRISim (Pioneer 3 Simulator)

Instructions from: GitHub - reedhedges/AMRISim)

1. Install dependencies

sudo apt install libroscpp-dev libtf-dev libsensor-msgs-dev libgeometry-msgs-dev libstd-msgs-dev libstd-srvs-dev libnav-msgs-dev libnodelet-dev rviz

2. Install mode dependencies

sudo apt install python3-roslaunch python3-rostopic ros-geometry-msgs ros-nav-msgs ros-std-msgs ros-sensor-msgs ros-std-srvs

3. Install AMRISim from source

cd ~/Downloads
git clone https://github.com/reedhedges/AMRISim
cd AMRISim
# Define path to AriaCoda before running make
export ARIA=/home/<user>/Downloads/AriaCoda
make
sudo make install

Running a simulator (or real) instance

1. Start ROS (in one terminal window)

cd ~/catkin_ws
source devel/setup.bash # Always required
roscore # Starts a ROS instance (once per machine)

2. Start the Simulator (in another terminal window)

cd ~/Downloads/AMRISim # or where you downloaded AMRISim
./AMRISIM # Start AMRISim
# Choose a map within the AMRISim folder (there should be a file workspace.map)

3. Start ROSAria (in another terminal window)

cd ~/catkin_ws
rosrun rosaria RosAria

4. Send a command to see it things are working (in another terminal window)

# This should move the robot forwards and rotate
rostopic pub -1 /RosAria/cmd_vel geometry_msgs/Twist '[1.0, 0.0, 0.0]' '[0.0, 0.0, 1.0]'

END OF INSTALLATION

Setting up a ROS project (package)

Making a new project

Information sourced from: http://wiki.ros.org/ROS/Tutorials/CreatingPackage

1. Enter the source directory of catkin

cd ~/catkin_ws/src

2. Create a new project

catkin_create_pkg <package_name> [dependency 1] [dependency 2]
# Example below:
catkin_create_pkg my_package roscpp std_msgs

3. Make the project in the catkin workspace

cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin_make
source devel/setup.bash

This will create the following file structure:

catkin_ws/
    src/
        CMakeLists.txt         # Top level Cmake file
        <package_name>/
            CMakeLists.txt     # CMake for package
            package.xml        # Package manifest

Checking project dependencies

rospack depends1 <package_name> # First order dependencies
rospack depends <package_name> # All dependencies (dependencies of dependencies)

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Setting up remote robot over TCP

Instructions from: http://wiki.ros.org/ROSARIA/Tutorials/How%20to%20use%20ROSARIA Ideally the robot should just listen to commands from a central machine. This process involves:

1. On the robot machine:

export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://<ip_address_of_robot>:11311
export ROS_IP=<ip_address_of_robot>

# Add ip address of host to /etc/hosts
sudo vim /etc/hosts
# Add "<ip_address_of_host>		my_workstation" to /etc/hosts

# In a new terminal window
cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin_make
roscore

# In another terminal window
cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin_make
rosrun rosaria RosAria _port:=/dev/ttyS0

2. On the host machine (do not run roscore here):

export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://<ip_address_of_robot>:11311
export ROS_HOSTNAME=<ip_address_of_host>
export ROS_IP=<ip_address_of_host>

cd ~/catkin_ws/
catkin_make
rostopic echo /RosAria/pose # Get position from robot