Photon on ROS

This project runs on ROS melodic for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Photon is a robot being built to compete in IARRC.

Setting up the ROS Environment

Install Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

This is dependent on what OS and computer is currently used.

Install ROS Melodic

The following instructions are taken from the ROS wiki install melodic page:

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

# Set up keys
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver 'hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80' --recv-key C1CF6E31E6BADE8868B172B4F42ED6FBAB17C654

# Melodic Desktop-Full Install
sudo apt install ros-melodic-desktop-full

# Environment setup
echo "source /opt/ros/melodic/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

# Dependencies for buiding packages
sudo apt install python-rosdep python-rosinstall python-rosinstall-generator python-wstool build-essential
sudo rosdep init
rosdep update

Install Ackermann Steering Controller

Provides the Ackermann Steering controller used to move the robot.

sudo apt-get install ros-melodic-ackermann-steering-controller

Install the Navigation Package

Provides the Navigation Stack package which is used for autonomous navigation.

sudo apt-get install ros-melodic-navigation

Install Robot Localization

Provides the Robot Localization package which is used for localizing the robot.

sudo apt-get install ros-melodic-robot-localization

Install IARRC Worlds

Custom built worlds representing the IARRC competition can be found in the /worlds package. To install them for use in the Gazebo simulator, run the install.sh script found in the /worlds folder.

NOTE: The install script copies specific contents of /worlds/models to ~/.gazebo/models

Cloning this repository

Before cloning this repository, create a ROS workspace:

mkdir -p photon-ws/src
cd photon-ws
catkin_make

After, clone this repository into the /src folder.

Optionally (preferred): clone this repository as your source folder, i.e. rename /Photon to /src

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University of Toronto Robotics Association

Autonomous Rover Team