Create 3 base (Turtlebot4) loses connectivity

[HarshalDawar]

Hello,
I am currently setting up my Turtlebot4.
The WiFi setup has been done successfully. I can connect to the web server, ping the robot, ping and log on to the Raspberry Pi from my laptop (Ubuntu 20.04, ROS Galactic). I have also updated the firmware on the robot once and updated the Raspberry Pi's packages. Topics are visible on my laptop as well and my Wifi's multicast works.

Yet the following sequence or a slight variation thereof occurs every time:

1. Issue Undock action, robot undocks successfully.
2. Issue Drive a distance action/ use teleop with joystick or keyboard. Robot drives forward some(1m-5m) distance and then stops.
3. Any topic echos stop working; any pending actions fail; I cannot ping the robot; the Comm light indicating the Robot to Pi connection goes off.
4. Connection restores on its own after quite a while, or once I place the unit back on the dock. (Indicated by the happy/boot chime).

The robot's ring LED remain on during this whole cycle, i.e., the robot doesn't seem to have shutdown/rebooted.

Since this breaks the connection with both, Raspberry Pi (USB) and Laptop(WLAN), I am not sure how to proceed/diagnose this. During this time, the Laptop - Pi connection remains unaffected.

Additionally, while at the dock, I have seen it do both, break the connectivity without moving, only to be restored on its own, and stay connected for hours without disconnecting.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thank you,

[shamlian]

I have never used a Turtlebot 4 but I just went through the quick setup page to get an idea of how things are put together.

I'm not sure what is going on, but the robot should not lose wired and wireless network connection. Just to be 100% certain, what version of code is the robot is running (see the home page)? Could you also send a log over? It would be helpful to see it as close to the failure as possible.

Hopefully we can figure this out quickly.

[HarshalDawar]

The connection does not stay alive and the logs have been grabbed after moving the robot to dock and waiting a few seconds for the connection to re-establish.
Regarding the cyclone error messages, I am uncertain if I have missed any step in Network config (I did cross check with the Turtlbot4 Quick start link again), so anything in particular that I could try?

Moreover, the robot's system time differs from RPi and Laptop time, but a) would that not always throw an issue? b) I haven't been able to find where can I set that from.

I could try moving all 3 machines to a different WiFi (local network), but https://github.com/iRobotEducation/create3_docs/discussions/109 is making me reluctant to try it [I still have no custom data/configs, so would not mind trying that if needed].

[shamlian]

Just briefly -- you don't need to worry about #109 , because you are just trying to change the SSID and password, not remove the Wi-Fi connection altogether. Additionally, in the case that you did factory reset the Create 3 robot, it would not affect anything on the Raspberry Pi. I'll be back to you in a bit for the other questions.

[HarshalDawar]

Quick update from the last 10 minutes:
Same situation exists for the setup mentioned above. However, once I shut down the RPi, thus far I have been able to keep the network connection alive between the Create3 base and my Laptop and successfully teleoperate the base without losing connectivity.
Maybe it as expected, or maybe I am not setting up something properly, I would perhaps need your advice based on this new information as well. I will additionally check with someone on the turtlebot4 repository as well.

[Rebecca-iRobot]

Hi @HarshalDawar! Any luck resolving this issue with your Turtlebot4? If not, contacting [email protected] may get you to the right place for answers!

[jerrynsr]

How did you assign the IP address to the Robot ? If you are using DHCP make it a permanent reservation.
Also the bot will have two WIFI addresses, one for the iRobot controller, the other for the RPI