Install ROS Indigo on Robot Computer

Perform these install steps on the computer responsible for robot control.

Some assumptions about your Ubuntu Install

These instructions make the following assumptions about your Ubuntu 14.04LTS install. These are not hard and fast rules, however, the instructions assume these things. When asked during the install you should select the following:

• username : sibot

• computer name : SIBOT1

• password : Welcome00

• The SSH client and server are installed.
  • If not run the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install openssh-client
sudo apt-get install openssh-server

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list'

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-key 421C365BD9FF1F717815A3895523BAEEB01FA116

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ros-indigo-desktop-full

sudo rosdep init
rosdep update

sudo apt-get install python-rosinstall

sudo apt-get install iperf chrony htop bridge-utils

sudo apt-get install ros-indigo-navigation ros-indigo-gmapping ros-indigo-robot-localization ros-indigo-yocs-cmd-vel-mux ros-indigo-joy ros-indigo-urg-node ros-indigo-lms1xx ros-indigo-pointgrey-camera-driver ros-indigo-cmake-modules ros-indigo-imu-tools daemontools openssh-server libpcap0.8-dev

sudo adduser $USER dialout

Environment setup

Edit the local bash environment to add a few useful aliases:

gedit ~/.bashrc

Add the following lines to the end of the file each provides a few shortcuts:

source /opt/ros/indigo/setup.bash
alias sws='source ./devel/setup.bash'
alias clean_backups='find ./ -name '*~' | xargs rm'
alias clean_pyc='find ./ -name '*.pyc' | xargs rm'
alias clean_rosbuild='rm -rf build devel install'
alias segstop='sudo service segway-core stop'
alias segstart='sudo service segway-core start'
alias segchk='sudo tail /var/log/upstart/segway-core.log -n 30'

Close your terminal and open a new one to make the changes effective

Setup Workspace

Create a work space in your home directory.

mkdir -p ~/segway_ws/src
cd ~/segway_ws/src
catkin_init_workspace
cd ..
catkin_make

Download and install ROS software packages

cd ~/segway_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/StanleyInnovation/segway_v3.git
git clone https://github.com/StanleyInnovation/segway_v3_robot.git
git clone https://github.com/StanleyInnovation/segway_v3_desktop.git
git clone https://github.com/StanleyInnovation/segway_v3_network.git
cd ..
catkin_make

Modify Sudo

This modification allows the user sibot to run start / stop service without entering a password.

sudo visudo

Paste this at the bottom of the file below the "#includedir"

sibot   ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /sbin/start segway-core, /sbin/stop segway-core

Save the file

[CTRL-X]
[Y]
[ENTER]

Setup chrony

• If you are going to be running ROS nodes on a remote computer it is a good idea to setup chrony to synchronize time between the machines
• The onboard robot PC should ideally run the server
• Specific directions for setting up chrony can be found online

Additional Steps

You should probably do these regardless, but these steps are really only required PGR Flea3 camera and onboard PC powered from RMP.

Open the grub configuration

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Add this line

Configures the system to not wait at startup if boot fails

# disable getting stuck in menu after fail
GRUB_RECORDFAIL_TIMEOUT=0

Update the USB memory buffer to handle USB3

* Locate this line

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

* Change it to this:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash usbcore usbfs_memory_mb=1000"

Save and exit

Update Grub

From the terminal

sudo update-grub
sudo modprobe usbcore usbfs_memory_mb=1000

Restart the computer