operate-robot.md

Robot Operation / Current Status

This is intended to be an up-to-date summary of how to run the robot.

January 9, 2022

Motor Speed Calibration

• Start roscore on raspi4: roscore
• Place robot on the floor with plenty of space ahead
• Log on to robot: ssh ubuntu@robot
  • Make sure pigpiod is running: sudo pigpiod
  • Launch motor calibrator tool: roslaunch wheels motor_calibrator.launch
  • See Motor Speed Control for more detail.

SLAM Mapping

• Start roscore on raspi4: roscore

• Log on to robot: ssh ubuntu@robot

  • Make sure pigpiod is running: sudo pigpiod
  • Start nodes on robot: roslaunch bringup bringup.launch
  • Start gmapping: roslaunch robot_nav gmapping.launch

• Start RVIZ with saved config: rviz -d ~/robot.rviz

• Start keyboard teleop: rosrun teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard.py

  • Or rosrun rqt_robot_steering rqt_robot_steering

• Drive around slowly to build map

• Save map (cd to maps folder): rosrun map_server map_saver -f officemap

Navigation

• Start roscore on raspi4: roscore

• Log on to robot: ssh ubuntu@robot

  • Make sure pigpiod is running: sudo pigpiod
  • Start nodes on robot: roslaunch bringup bringup.launch
  • Start navigation: roslaunch robot_nav navigation.launch

• Start RVIZ with saved config: rviz -d ~/robot.rviz

Test Drive

Test drive pkg (installed on Raspi4) enables driving directly to a goal specified in RVIZ, but without regard for obstacles.

• Start roscore on raspi4: roscore

• Log on to robot: ssh ubuntu@robot

  • Make sure pigpiod is running: sudo pigpiod
  • Start nodes on robot: roslaunch bringup bringup.launch
  • Start map node on robot: roslaunch robot_nav map.launch

• Start test drive: roslaunch test_drive test_drive.launch

• Start RVIZ with saved config: rviz -d ~/robot.rviz

Check to make sure actual velocity of robot matches command velocity

• With robot already running (bringup launched)
• rosrun rqt_robot_steering rqt_robot_steering
• rqt_plot

Show tf tree

• The tf tree shows the topological relationship of all the coordinate frames

• To show tf tree: rosrun rqt_tf_tree rqt_tf_tree