Noetic status

The code currently compiles, but there's no guarantee that the code works (e.g. Python/Tensorflow related code will not work since the dependencies are not installed etc.). However, you should be able to launch the robot in simulation and run the navigation stack.

• You may need to install the following packages:
  • ros-noetic-octomap
  • ros-noetic-octomap-ros
  • libboost-python1.71-dev
• Add -Wno-error=deprecated-copy to the RDDL_CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS in ROSPlan/rosplan_dependencies/CMakeLists.txt temporarily until ROSPlan for noetic is released
• The following packages are ignored/not compiled for various reasons:
  • mir_grasp_monitors (ros-noetic-serial package is not available)
  • mir_knowledge (ros-noetic-mongodb-store-msgs package is not available)
  • mir_pddl_problem_generator (ros-noetic-mongodb-store package is not available)
• Perception dependencies (tensorflow etc.) are not installed (line 179 in setup.sh). Perhaps we need to upgrade to tensorflow 2?
• The following packages are compiled locally (via repository.rosinstall) because they have not been released for noetic yet:
  • brics_actuator
  • pr2_power_drivers
• Several warnings to be fixed, especially for packages that use PCL

Install Ubuntu

The repository and its related components have been tested under the following Ubuntu distributions:

• ROS Kinetic: Ubuntu 16.04
• ROS Melodic: Ubuntu 18.04
• ROS Noetic: Ubuntu 20.04

If you do not have a Ubuntu distribution on your computer you can download it here

 http://www.ubuntu.com/download

Git - Version Control

Install Git Software

Install the Git core components and some additional GUI's for the version control:

 sudo apt-get install git-core gitg gitk

Set Up Git

Now it's time to configure your settings. To do this you need to open a new Terminal. First you need to tell git your name, so that it can properly label the commits you make:

 git config --global user.name "Your Name Here"

Git also saves your email address into the commits you make.

 git config --global user.email "[email protected]"

GIT Tutorial

If you have never worked with git before, we recommend to go through the following basic git tutorial:

 http://excess.org/article/2008/07/ogre-git-tutorial/

Docker (Recommended, Optional)

Getting started with docker

The latest versions of docker-engine and docker-compose have to be installed before getting started. Please have a look at docker's official website for more insights into the working and usage of docker images and docker containers.

The docker images available here provide a proper development environment -with ros pre-installed and without any missing dependencies- for the MAS industrial software. It is highly recommended that you use docker containers to build and run your nodes rather than directly installing ROS and working with the MAS industrial software on your PC.

First, you need to pull the corresponding image you want to use:

#kinetic image
docker pull  ghcr.io/b-it-bots/mas_industrial_robotics/industrial-kinetic:latest

#melodic image
docker pull ghcr.io/b-it-bots/mas_industrial_robotics/industrial-melodic:latest

The main branch of the ros distro should always reflect latest tag in the github registry, for example kinetic branch reflects mas_industrial_robotics/industrial-kinetic:latest. The ros distro devel branch always reflects devel tag, for example kinetic branch reflects mas_industrial_robotics/industrial-kinetic:devel

Start container with docker-compose:

docker-compose -f start-container.yaml up <industrial_kinetic|industrial_melodic>

Log in to the container:

docker exec -it mas_industrial_robotics_industrial_kinetic_1 /bin/bash

More detailed tutorials on how to use MAS Industrial Robotics softwares with docker are available here

ROS - Robot Operating System

Install ROS

The repository has been tested successfully with the following ROS distributions. Use the link behind a ROS distribution to get to the particular ROS installation instructions. Alternatively, you can skip this step, as ROS Melodic is automatically installed by the setup.sh script described in this section.

• ROS Noetic - http://wiki.ros.org/noetic/Installation/Ubuntu

NOTE: Do not forget to update your .bashrc!

ROS Tutorials

If you have never worked with ROS before, we recommend to go through the beginner tutorials provided by ROS:

 http://wiki.ros.org/ROS/Tutorials

In order to understand at least the different core components of ROS, you have to start from tutorial 1 ("Installing and Configuring Your ROS Environment") till tutorial 7 ("Understanding ROS Services and Parameters").

Clone and compile the MAS industrial robotics software

First of all you have to clone the repository.

mkdir ~/temp
cd ~/temp
git clone --branch noetic [email protected]:b-it-bots/mas_industrial_robotics.git

Navigate into the cloned repository and run setup.sh file.

 ./setup.sh --ros_install <full|base> --ros_distro <melodic|kinetic|noetic> --ws_dir <$HOME/catkin_ws> --docker 0

Example:

 ./setup.sh --ros_install full --ros_distro noetic --ws_dir $HOME/catkin_ws --docker 0

Note: In case you are using the docker images, please pay attention to the mounted directory path in the container. All the above paths should be relative to your mounted folder inside the docker container and not your local file system.

This script does the following,

• installs ROS, if not previously installed, provided the optional argument full is given. In case, you dont want to install ROS then replace full by none.
• creates a catkin workspace folder in the directory specified in the argument or by default places it in home directory, i.e. ~/catkin_ws (if it does not exist)
• clones the mas_industiral_robotics repository along with other repositories mentioned in repository.rosinstall file to <your folder>/catkin_ws/src and installs the necessary ros dependencies
• initiates a catkin build in the catkin workspace

Note: A catkin_ws built inside docker container can be built only within docker containers having the same mounted directory in the container. Do not try to switch the catkin_ws build between docker containers and local PC, as it will produce errors due to conflicting paths.

Add the following to your bashrc and source your bashrc, so that you need not execute ./setup.sh script each time you open your terminal

 source <your folder>/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash

If no errors appear everything is ready to use. Great job!

Finally delete the initially cloned mas_industrial_robotics in ~/temp, as all necessary repositories and dependencies are successfully cloned and installed in your catkin workspace

 rm -rf ~/temp/mas_industrial_robotics

Setting the Environment Variables

ROBOT variable

With the ROBOT variable you can choose which hardware configuration should be loaded when starting the robot. The following line will add the variable to your .bashrc:

 echo "export ROBOT=youbot-brsu-4" >> ~/.bashrc
 source ~/.bashrc

ROBOT_ENV Variable

The ROBOT_ENV variable can be used to switch between different environments. The following line will add the variable to your .bashrc:

Real robot

 echo "export ROBOT_ENV=brsu-c025" >> ~/.bashrc
 source ~/.bashrc

Simulation

 echo "export ROBOT_ENV=brsu-c025-sim" >> ~/.bashrc
 source ~/.bashrc

Bring up the robot and it's basic components

In Simulation

 roslaunch mir_bringup_sim robot.launch

At the Real Robot

 roslaunch mir_bringup robot.launch

Test the base

 roslaunch mir_teleop teleop_keyboard.launch

Visualize the robot state and sensor data

 rosrun rviz rviz

Build a map for base navigation

 roslaunch mir_2dslam 2dslam.launch

Use autonomous navigation

Omni-directional navigation

 roslaunch mir_2dnav 2dnav.launch nav_mode:=dwa

Click on the menu bar "File -> Open Config", navigate to "~/indigo/src/mas_industrial_robotics" and select the "youbot.rviz" file.

Note on Contributions:

Pre-commit hooks has been added to this repository. Please note that you will not be able to locally commit your changes to git until all the checks in the .pre-commit-config.yaml pass. Although, cpp and python code formatters are present in .pre-commit-config.yaml, some serious violations of the standard coding guidelines will not be automatically fixed while running the pre-commit hooks. These errors will be displayed while running git commit and have to be manually fixed. Users will not be able to commit their code, until these errors are fixed. Alternatively, one could also verify if the pre-commit hooks pass before actually committing the code to git. To do so please run the following command after making necessary changes to your code.

pre-commit run --all-files