roboticslab-fr / roswifibot

ROS Driver for Wifibot lab mobile robot.

roswifibot

ROS Driver for Wifibot lab mobile robot. More information on the official webpage

It is based on low-level "libwifibot" driver, available here and here "libwifibot" is wrapped within this ROS package.

This package is a fork of the original "roswifibot" package, available on SourceForge.

The fork has been ported to catkin and maintained with recent versions of ROS. Retro-compatibility has been kept with rosmake (older versions of ROS, for instance fuerte).

Features

• "wifibot_node": low-level robot control
• "hokuyo_node": low-level Hokuyo laser driver
• "camera1394": low-level Firewire camera driver
• "turtlebot_teleop": keyboard-based teleoperation
• "rviz": vizualisation

Licence

BSD

Authors

Original authors according to the "manifest": claire, jean-charles

Fork maintainer: Arnaud Ramey ([email protected])

Compile and install

ROS Fuerte + rosmake

Dependencies with ROS Fuerte:

$ sudo apt-get install  ros-fuerte-robot-model  ros-fuerte-navigation  ros-fuerte-laser-drivers  ros-fuerte-viz ros-fuerte-perception ros-fuerte-camera1394  ros-fuerte-turtlebot-apps

Compile with rosmake (older versions of ROS, for instance fuerte):

$ cd cmake ; bash package2rosmake.bash
$ rosmake roswifibot

ROS Indigo + catkin

1. Dependencies included in the Ubuntu packages

Please run the rosdep utility:

$ sudo apt-get install python-rosdep
$ sudo rosdep init
$ rosdep install roswifibot --ignore-src

2. Compile with catkin_make:

$ catkin_make --only-pkg-with-deps roswifibot

Run

1. Run the robot driver:

$ roslaunch roswifibot robot_launch.launch

2. If there is a Hokuyo laser, run the driver in a new terminal:

$ roslaunch roswifibot robot_launch.launch

3. If there is a Firewire camera, run the driver in a new terminal:

$ roslaunch roswifibot firewire.launch

4. If there is a Kinect camera, run the driver in a new terminal:

$ roslaunch roswifibot robot_launch.launch

Note: steps 1) to 4) can be replaced with a one-liner:

$ roslaunch roswifibot robot_kinect_joy_launch.launch

5. Run joypad-based teleoperation in a new terminal:

$ roslaunch roswifibot joy_teleop.launch

6. Run keyboard-based teleoperation in a new terminal:

$ roslaunch roswifibot keyboard_teleop.launch

7. Run "rviz", the vizualisation tool, in a new terminal:

$ roslaunch roswifibot rviz.launch

Publications

• /camera/depth/image Kinect depth image

• /camera/rgb/image_color Kinect RGB image

• /image_raw Firewire camera

Troubleshooting

Problemm: compilation error

When you launch

$ catkin-make

you obtain a message as:

"roswifibot-master/msg/Status.msg: [roswifibot-master/Status] is not a legal type name"

or

"ERROR: package name 'roswifibot-master' is illegal and cannot be used in message generation."

Solution: You must rename you package folder to "roswifibot", not "roswifibot-master".

Problem: roscore error.

When you launch

$ roscore

Error on screen:

Param xml is <param command="rosversion ros" name="rosversion"/>
Invalid <param> tag: Cannot load command parameter [rosversion]: command [rosversion ros] returned with code [1].

Solution: Based on this link

$ sudo apt-get install python-rospkg

Problem: Acces denied to devices (robot or Hokuyo).

Solution:

$ sudo chmod a+rwx /dev/ttyS* /dev/ttyACM*

Problem: Connexion with the robot is slow (several seconds).

Few TF messages:

  $ rostopic hz /tf

returns less than 100Hz. Topic "/odom" is not published.

Cause: Another executable is already connected with the robot.

Solution: kill all processes "robot_server*". Run:

  $ ps aux | grep robot_server

and kill all all associated PIDs. Then stop and relaunch the launch file.

Problem: Firewire camera is not recognized.

Solution: Run "coriander" and check camera is recognized.

Problem: Hokuyo laser range finder dies.

When launching "wifibot_node", the Hokyuo device is suddenly turned off, (or any other plugged on the robot); the device "/dev/ttyACM0" disappears

Solution: Based on ros.org The problem is in fact linked with the electrical relays of the Wifibot. The orders sent to the robot can cut off the relays (electrical supplies) for the devices plugged on the robot. By default, the orders shut down these relays and so the Hokyuo device is shut down.

The "wifibot_node" ROS driver has been modified to enable such configuration. For instance, set as command-line argument "_relay1:=true" to activate the first relay.

Note: at the driver level, you could call "setRelays(true, true, true)" to enable them.