XbeeMav

Description:

XbeeMav allows to configure, test and communicate with Xbee devices through ROS, and specifically through mavros.

Requirements

• ROS base binary distribution (Indigo or Kinetic):

The steps for installing ROS Kinetic on Ubuntu are detailed here.

• ROS additionnal dependencies:

You will need the mavros packages.

sudo apt-get install ros-<distro>-mavros ros-<distro>-mavros-extras

• XCTU

You will need the XCTU application for the initial configuration of new XBees. It can be downloaded here.

• XBee modules

We have tested this with the Digi XBee-PRO 900HP, the Digi XBee SX (900MHz) and the Digi XBee SX 868.

Configure the XBees.

You first need to put the right configuration on the XBees using XCTU. We provide some profile files for both XBee modules we have used in Resources/xctu_profiles:

• xbee_pro_900_hp.xpro for the Digi XBee-PRO 900HP.
• xbee_sx.xpro for the Digi XBee SX and Digi XBee SX 868.

In order to load the profiles, open XCTU and connect the XBee module to your computer.

You will first need to add the XBee module. You can do so by clicking on the Discover radio modules button:

Select the port where you have connected the XBee, the parameters to search for, and scan. The XBee module should be found, and you can then start configuring it.

From the configuration operating mode:

You can load the appropriate configuration profile from Resources/xctu_profiles by selecting the Load configuration profile option:

XCTU might ask to update the firmware to load the profile.

Update the database.

In order for your XBee module to be recognized, it is necessary to add it to the database file.

To do so, you need to find the MAC address of your XBee module.

If you added the module to XCTU, you can read it directly from XCTU:

The MAC address is also written directly on the module:

Now, you have to add the MAC address to the Resources/database.xml file.

Add a line within the <Addresses> and </Addresses> tags with the following format, replacing N by an integer ID not yet used in the database file, and MAC_ADDRESS by the MAC address of your XBee module:

		<Device Address= "N"  >MAC_ADDRESS</Device>

Compilation

mkdir -p ~/ROS_WS/src
cd ~/ROS_WS/src
git clone https://github.com/MISTLab/XbeeMav xbeemav
cd ..
catkin_make

Source ROS environment

source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.bash
source ~/ROS_WS/devel/setup.bash

Run

To run the XbeeMav package using the launch file, execute the following:

roslaunch xbee_ros_node xbeemav.launch

Publishers

• /inMavlink [mavros_msgs/Mavlink]

Subscribers

• /outMavlink [mavros_msgs/Mavlink]

Services

• /network_status [mavros_msgs/ParamGet]

This service can take 3 values:

1. id for the network id for the XBee module registered in the database.xml file.
2. rssi for the signal strength of last message received.
3. pl_raw_avg for the average packet loss.