Running the Actual ROSBot

If have you a Husarion ROSbot you can try out Mowito’s Navigation stack directly on it.

Connect To ROSBot

1. Get the ROSbot connected to a wifi

1.1. Connect a screen and keyboard with ROSBot, and then connect the ROSbot to the wifi.

1.2. Get the Laptop (ground station) on the same network as the ROSbot. This laptop will be used give goals to the ROSbot and visualize the path, sensore input and other info from the ROSbot

2. Get the IP address of the RObot

2.1. Open the terminal

2.2. execute the followin command

hostname -I The output is the IP address of the ROSbot, note it down.

3. SSH into the ROSbot

3.1. Open the terminal on your laptop and execute the following

ssh husarion@<ip address of the ROSbot>

3.2. If you avahi daemon running on the robot then you can instead try

ssh husarion@husarion.localwhere husarion is the user name and hostname of the ROSbot respectively.

4. Export ROS_IP on ROSBot

4.1. SSH into the ROSbot and execute the following :

export ROS_IP=<ip address of the ROSbot>

4.2. If you have avahi daemon running then you can instead try:

export ROS_IP=husarion.local

where husarion is the hostanme of your ROSbot

You have to execute the above commands every time you ssh into ROSbot to run Mowito’s navigation stack.

5. Setup the Laptop (ground station)

5.1. Export ROS_IP

Get the IP address of the laptop, by executing the following on the laptop’s terminal hostname -I

then on the same terminal export ROS_IP=<ip address of the laptop>

5.2. Export ROS_MASTER_URI

One same terminal execute the following: export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://<ip address of the ROSbot>:11311

You have execute above two commans on each terminal of Laptop (Ground station) which you want to use for communicating to the ROSbot.

Setup Mowito’s Stack On Robot

User Registration

If you have already done, you can skip this step.

Register yourself on this website https://mowito.in/navigation_stack.html

We need your email to mail you the password, and to count how many people are using Mowito.

We won’t spam. :)

Installation Mowito Navigation Stack

1. SSH into the ROSBot

2. Create mowito directory

   mkdir -p ~/mowito_ws/src/

3. Clone the repo containing the debians:

   cd ~/mowito_ws/src

   for ROS melodic on arm 64 git clone https://github.com/mowito/mowito_arm64.git --branch melodic

   for ROS kinetic on armV7 (armhf) git clone https://github.com/mowito/mowito_armv7.git --branch kinetic

4. Remove any previous installation of Mowito stack

   cd mowito_arm64 or cd mowito_armv7 based on arm 64 or armV7 respcectively.

   for ROS melodic ./remove_mowito.sh melodic

   for ROS kinetic ./remove_mowito.sh kinetic

5. Install the new Mowito stack

   For ROS melodic ./setup_mowito.sh melodic

   For ROS kinetic ./setup_mowito.sh kinetic

6. In the end, the setup will ask for the uesr registeration.

   Use the user name you used on the registration website and password that was mailed to you. You can use any name as robot name.

Installation of Mowito Rosbot Package

Mowito Rosbot package simply contains the necessary launch files and config files, which Mowito team create for easy deployment on ROSbot.

1. SSH into the ROSBot
2. clone the Mowito ROSbot package into the mowito_ws

cd ~/mowito_ws/src && git clone https://github.com/mowito/mowito_rosbot.git

3. Build the Mowito ROSbot package.

cd ~/mowito_ws && catkin_make

of if you use catkin build tools

cd ~/mowito_ws && catkin build

4. source the mowito_ws whenever you need to run mowito_rosbot

source ~/mowito_ws/devel/setup.bash

TIP:: you can add the above command in you ~/.bashrc so that its atuomatically executed everytime you open the terminal.

Navigation - Without Map

During this phase, for navigation the robot, you can use two methods

1. Manual Navigation - Using Tele-Operation
2. Autonomou Navigation - By giving goals through Rviz

Method 1 : Manual Navigation

Step 0 : SSH into the rosbot and on it source the workspace

ssh husarion@husarion.local

source ~/mowito_ws/devel/setup.bash

Step 1 : Launch the mw_mapping node

1. With Mowito Mapping (default)

roslaunch mowito_rosbot run_mw_mapping.launch

2. With cartographer

roslaunch mowito_rosbot run_mw_mapping.launch cartographer:=true

Step 2 : Launch the remote control for providing commands to the bot

in another terminal, SSH in into rosbot and run the following command :

rosrun teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard.py

Method 2 : Autonomous Navigation

Here, the robot will explore the map based on the goal destination provided by the user on RViz.

Step 0 : SSH into the rosbot and on it source the workspace

ssh husarion@husarion.local

source ~/mowito_ws/devel/setup.bash

Step 1 : Launch the Mowito Navigation without Map

1. With Mowito mapping.

roslaunch mowito_rosbot run_mw_navigation_with_no_map.launch

2. With Cartographer

roslaunch mowito_rosbot run_mw_navigation_with_no_map.launch cartographer:=true

Step 2: Provide Goal

Open another terminal, export ROS_MASTER_URI and ROS_IP and then source ROS and start rviz:

rviz

The goal can be provided on RViz using the “2D Nav Goal” feature provided on RViz.

The icon is highlighted in red in the image below.

Saving the Map

Once you are done creating the map on rviz, for saving the map on a new terminal, ssh into rosbot and based on the mapping tool you were using execute the following command:

1) Mowito Mapping (defautl)

cd && rosrun map_server map_saver -f mymap

the map (pgm and yaml) is saved in the home directory with the name mymap.pgm and mymap.yaml

2) Cartographer , run the following command

rosrun mowito_rosbot save_carto_map.sh map_name

the map (pbstream) is saved in the home directory with the name map_name.pbstream. If no map_name is given then it would save as map.pbstream

Navigation - With Map

Step 0 : SSH into ROSBot and Source the workspace

source <path_to_mowito_ws>/devel/setup.bash

Step 1 : Place the robot

Preferable place the robot at the origin of map (the place where you started mapping)

Step 2 : Run the Mowito’s Navigation Stack

Open a terminal and SSH into the ROSBOT

1. Using map made from Mowito Mapping (in previous step)

roslaunch mowito_rosbot run_mw_navigation.launch

If you want to use the map created in the previous section use the following command

roslaunch mowito_rosbot run_mw_navigation.launch map_path:=/home/husarion/mymap.yaml

2. Cartographer based Localization

Use this if you created the map from cartographer in the previous step

roslaunch mowito_rosbot run_mw_navigation.launch cartographer:=true

Step 3 : Give the goals

In another terminal, export the ROS_MASTER_URI and ROS_IP, source ros and start rviz:

rviz

In the rviz, click on the second top panel, click on the nav goal option, and click on the displayed map to give goal to the robot.

Configuring Navigation Stack

Check out our documentation on configuring Mowito Navigation Stack on a robot.

Setting Up Rviz

Rviz is a tool for visualizing what the robot is seeing. Further, it could also provide GUI for the user to interact with the robot. Rviz can be opened in the computer (with screen) - most probably not the ROSbot, using the command rviz (after sourcing ROS).

In order to visualize all the interesting information on Rviz you have to add the topics on which they are getting published. You can find more information on this http://wiki.ros.org/rviz/UserGuide

To add a topic of visualisation:

1. On the left “Display” pane, click on “add”
2. Click on “by topic”
3. select the topic name
4. click on “ok”

now you one-by-one you have to add the following topics: scan /map /plan /costmap/local_costmap/footprint /free_paths /local_path

for visualizing the axis of the robot and other frames:

1. On the left “Display” pane, click on “add”
2. Click on “by display type”
3. select “axes”
4. click on “ok”

Once you are satisfied with the configuration, click on File > save config, so that you don’t have to configure Rviz everytime you open it.