• Acrux ROS2 Humble Release
  • Table of Contents
  • 1. Installation
  • 2. Connection
    • Initial Wifi Setup
      • 1. Create a mobile hotspot
      • 2. Start the robot
      • 3. SSH into the robot
      • 4. Connect to Wifi
      • 4. SSH using your Wifi
  • 3. NUC Instructions
    • Instructions to remove Intel NUC from robot
    • USB ports Configuration
  • 4. Package Description
    • 4.1 acrux_bringup
    • 4.2 acrux_description
    • 4.2 acrux_firmware
    • 4.3 acrux_gazebo
    • 4.4 acrux_navigation
    • 4.6 acrux_slam
  • 5. Launch Sequence
    • Simulation
    • Real Robot
    • 5.1 SLAM and map saver
      • This will ensure all the necessary nodes are up for SLAM based navigation on the robot.
    • 5.2 Autonomous Navigation in the Saved Map
  • 6. Low-Level ROS Topics
    • /battery/percentage
    • /battery/voltage
    • /cmd_vel
    • /pid/control
    • /diagnostics/test
    • /wheel/ticks
    • /wheel/vel
  • 7. acrux Robot Parameters
  • 9. Joystick Control Instructions
  • 10. LED indicators instructions
    • Nomenclature
    • Instructions

cd ~/ros2_ws/src  # Assuming ros1_ws is the name of the workspace

Clone the repository into your workspace:

git clone -b ros2-humble https://github.com/rigbetellabs/acrux.git

Install dependent packages:

cd ~/ros2_ws/src/acrux
cat requirements.txt | xargs sudo apt-get install -y 

cd ~/ros2_ws/src/
https://github.com/rigbetellabs/ydlidar_ros2_driver-humble

git clone https://github.com/YDLIDAR/YDLidar-SDK.git
sudo apt install cmake pkg-config
sudo apt-get install python3 swig
sudo apt-get install python3-pip

mkdir -p YDLidar-SDK/build
cd YDLidar-SDK/build
cmake ..
make
sudo make install

cd ..
pip install .

cd ~/ros1_ws/src/
git clone -b ros2-humble https://github.com/rigbetellabs/joy_with_waypoint_nav.git

Build the workspace:

cd ~/ros1_ws
colcon build --symlink-install

Follow the steps below to connect the robot to your desired Wifi network

Initiate a hotspot from your smartphone/laptop with the credentials

• Hotspot Name: admin
• Hotspot Password: adminadmin

Power on the robot and wait until it connects to your hotspot network

On powering on:	When connected to hotspot:

• Connect your laptop/remote device to the same hotspot

• Open a new terminal, and enter the SSH credentials

ssh "your-robot-name"@"your-robot-ip"  
pwd: "your-robot-password"

Method1	Method2

• Enter the following command on the ssh terminal to check available networks

sudo nmcli dev wifi list --rescan yes

• Connect to your wifi network

sudo nmcli device wifi connect "your-wifi-name" password "your-wifi-password"

• Now the robot is connected to your Wifi network! You can now shutdown your mobile hotspot, connect your remove device to the same wifi and access the robot using SSH:

Step1	Step2	Step3

(If the above Gifs do not work in your documentation format, you can refer to this link)

Provides sensor and actuation topics.

Simulation environment for acrux in Gazebo.

Autonomous navigation of the robot using Nav2 in a known as well as an unknown environment.

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) for the robot.

cd ~/ros2_ws/src/acrux
./development.sh

This will stop all your local ros servers permanently and allow you to test your launch files according to will. If you need the robot to be upstart upon bootup again, you can always enable it using

cd ~/ros2_ws/src/acrux
./demo.sh

ros2 launch acrux_gazebo spawn_robot.launch.py

The gazebo world looks like this: Add links for other launch files following the same pattern as display.launch.

For complete startup of the robot with all its features and autonomous navigation:

ros2 launch acrux_bringup autobringup.launch  

Other Arguments to play with:

To launch only sensors and actuators without navigation and odometry:

ros2 launch acrux_bringup bringup.launch joy:=True #set to true for joystick control

ros2 launch acrux_bringup autobringup.launch exploration:=True

To save the map:

ros2 launch acrux_navigation map_saver.launch.py map_file_path:=/your/map/directory

ros2 launch acrux_bringup autobringup.launch exploration:=False map_file:=/your/map/directory

This topic provides information about the remaining battery percentage of the robot.

This topic reports the current battery voltage, ranging from 25.2V at maximum charge to 19.8V at minimum charge.

The /cmd_vel topic is responsible for receiving velocity commands for the robot. These commands can be generated by teleoperation or the move_base module, instructing the robot on how fast to move in different directions.

This topic is of type int and is used to control the Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller. Publishing 0 stops PID control, 1 starts fast PID control, 2 activates smooth PID control, 3 activate supersmooth PID control. Here's an example:

ros2 topic pub -1 /pid/control std_msgs/msg/Int32 data:\ 1\ 

The /diagnostics/test topic is utilized to run diagnostics on the robot. It serves the purpose of identifying and addressing any issues that may arise during the robot's operation. For detailed diagnostics procedures, refer to the documentation.

This topic provides an array of ticks for all four wheels of the robot, in the format [lf, lb, rf, rb]. These values represent the encoder readings of the wheel ticks.

The /wheel/vel topic sends an array of calculated velocities for each wheel on the robot, received via encoders. The format of the array is [lf, lb, rf, rb], representing the actual velocity at which each wheel is moving.