AVC-ROS

ROS packages required to control a Swarmie for the SparkFun AVC

Initial configuration:

If connecting to hardware (Pololu A-Star microcontroller, MIKROE-1032 GPS, or Scanse Sweep LiDAR (discontinued)), add the following rules to /etc/udev/rules.d/99-usb-serial.rules:

SUBSYSTEM=="tty", ATTRS{idVendor}=="1ffb", ATTRS{idProduct}=="2300", SYMLINK+="swarmie/arduino"
SUBSYSTEM=="tty", ATTRS{idVendor}=="1546", ATTRS{idProduct}=="01a6", SYMLINK+="swarmie/ublox"
SUBSYSTEM=="tty", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0403", ATTRS{idProduct}=="6015", SYMLINK+="swarmie/scanse"

The AVC-Arduino repo provides an interface to access lower-level sensors (Pololu AltIMU-10 v4, Pololu quadrature wheel encoders, and PING))) ultrasonic distance sensors), as well as Pololu metal gearmotors through the Pololu A-Star.

Setup w/ Docker:

Prerequisites:

• Docker CE (Community Edition) installed on the OS of your choice

Building:

# clone the AVC-ROS repository
git clone https://github.com/jhecker/AVC-ROS.git

# add yourself to the docker group
sudo usermod -a -G docker $USER

# build the Docker image
docker build -t avc-ros AVC-ROS

Running:

# derive and run the Docker container from the Docker image
docker run -it --rm --name avc-ros --hostname swarmie --privileged -v /dev/swarmie:/dev/swarmie --net=host --add-host swarmie:127.0.1.1 avc-ros

# run main script from inside the interactive Docker shell
roslaunch AVC-ROS/launch/avc.launch

Setup w/o Docker:

Prerequisites:

• Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) (Desktop or Server)

• ROS Kinetic Kame (either the perception ROS metapackage, or a superset of this metapackage)

• The following ROS packages (available through APT) in addition to the perception metapackage:

  python-catkin-tools
  ros-kinetic-gmapping
  ros-kinetic-move-base
  ros-kinetic-pointcloud-to-laserscan
  ros-kinetic-robot-localization
  ros-kinetic-urg-node
  

• Sweep SDK to provide API support to the Sweep ROS package

Building:

# clone the AVC-ROS repository
git clone https://github.com/jhecker/AVC-ROS.git

# enter the main directory
cd AVC-ROS

# setup sweep-ros submodule
git submodule init
git submodule update

# build project
catkin build

Running:

# enter main directory
cd /path/to/AVC-ROS

# source project
source install/setup.bash

# run main script
roslaunch launch/avc.launch