Installation & setup

##Installation - Setup

This series of challenges require the utilization of the STDR Simulator and the CRSM SLAM, which are a collection ROS packages. The operating system required is Ubuntu 12.04 or 14.04 (the code was checked in 14.04 but it should work on 12.04 as well).

ROS is a "flexible framework for writing robot software. It is a collection of tools, libraries, and conventions that aim to simplify the task of creating complex and robust robot behavior across a wide variety of robotic platforms."

STDR Simulator is a two dimentional robot simulator that enables simple simulation of robots in an intuitive and easy way. It is based on ROS and its main goal is to enable you to setup a simulation environment in just a few minutes.

CRSM SLAM stands for Critical Rays Scan Match SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) and, as the name suggests, provides mapping functionality to a robotic agent that is equipped with an LRF (Laser Range Finder) sensor.

###ROS installation

First of all you must install ROS. The flavour is ROS Indigo if you have Ubuntu 14.04 installed, or ROS hydro for Ubuntu 12.04. The installation instructions can be found here:

• ROS Hydro installation
• ROS Indigo installation

###Download the required packages

The required packages you have to download are STDR Simulator, CRSM SLAM and the current repository. Before them install the following libraries:

sudo apt-get install git mercurial ros-indigo-map-server

Create a catkin repository in a folder you want (in this tutorial we create in in $HOME):

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

Then clone the CRSM SLAM repository:

cd ~/catkin_ws/src/
git clone https://github.com/pandora-auth-ros-pkg/crsm-slam-ros-pkg.git
cd crsm-slam-ros-pkg
git checkout autonomous_systems

Next, clone the STDR Simulator:

cd ~/catkin_ws/src/
git clone https://github.com/stdr-simulator-ros-pkg/stdr_simulator.git
cd stdr_simulator
git checkout autonomous_systems

Build the packages:

cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin_make

If the build was successful you are ok!

###Create a github account and fork the autonomous systems repository

If you don't have a github account create one! Then login, go to the autonomous_systems_architectures repository here and fork it to your account (the fork button is at the top right of the repositorie's webpage).

You have to do this, in order to upload the challenges code in your own repository.

Clone the autonomous_systems repository located in your profile:

cd ~/catkin_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/autonomous_systems_architectures.git

Build the package:

cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin_make --pkg autonomous_exploration

or

cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin_make

Then, add the following line at the end of the $HOME/.bashrc file:

source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash --extend

Finally, either close all consoles and reopen them, or execute in every console the following:

source ~/.bashrc