Installation

1. Clone the git repository

2. Install libudev:

   • On Ubuntu: sudo apt install libudev-dev
   • On Arch Linux: sudo pacman -S systemd-libs
   • Create a symbolic link to libudev.so in the redist directory.

3. Install python3-pip

4. Install virtualenv

5. Create a new virtual python3 environment inside the directory of the cloned repository:

   virtualenv -p /usr/bin/python3 venv

   This will create a new directory called venv within the repository.

6. Activate the new virtual environment:

   source venv/bin/activate

7. Install dependencies (while still having the virtual environment activated):

   pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Running the robot

To run the SLAM robot, the a laptop mounted on the robot must run the core script which acts as the server; a remote client can then connect to this server to remotely view and interact with the map.

1. Run start.py script to start the SLAM system on the laptop mounted on the robot (pass --disable-auto, because by default it will try to explore autonomously, which is currently not up to mark):

python start.py --disable-auto

2. Run client.py script to view the map (and the robot location) on another laptop or PC. You can also interact with the map to manually pick a point location on the map for the robot to autonomously drive to. You'll also need to pass the IP address of the laptop running the core script:

python client.py -a IPV4_ADDRESS