Minibot

Minibot is a ROS2 package that uses the ROS2 NAV2 stack and slam_toolbox to perform Simultaneous Localization and Mapping. This package was created in coordination by members of the Kentucky Organization of Robotics and Automation (KORA).

Contents

1. Overview
2. Materials
3. Prerequisites
4. Installation
5. Launch Minibot
6. Credits

Overview

Minibot uses pre compiled package ROS nodes to publish data from the sensors onboard the bot. Users can interact with Minibot by sending a home and target pose. The Minibot will initialize its own home position by default (as the pose Minibot is in when powered on). Once a target has been provided, Minibot will use SLAM to find an efficient route from home to target.

If no target pose is provided for 2 minutes, Minibot will (do something interesting idk blink, play noise, etc)

Materials

We will be using the following materials for this minibot:

Prerequisites

1. Install Ubuntu 20.04

This package requires ROS2 Foxy Fitzroy, which can only be installed on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa).

For x86_64:

• An installation guide provided by Ubuntu can be found here.

For Nvidia Jetson Nano (ARM):

• A precompiled Ubuntu 20.04 image for the Nvidia Jetson Nano can be found here.
  • (We will be using the barebones version)
  • Note: Normally Nvidia does not support Ubuntu versions past 18.04 (Bionic Beaver) for the Jetson Nano, but up to 20.04 has been used with success.

2. Install ROS2 Foxy Fitzroy

An installation guide for ROS2 Foxy Fitzroy can be found here

Run the ROS2 talker and listener demo in the Try some examples section to ensure ROS2 Foxy was installed correctly.

3. Install Dev Dependencies (Optional)

These tools help the development process of the robot. Both are only really useful with a GUI. So install and use them accordingly.

Install Gazebo Simulation Tool (Optional)

sudo apt install ros-foxy-gazebo-ros-pkgs

Install rqt (Optional)

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ~nros-foxy-rqt*

4. Set Up A ROS2 Workspace

Install colcon

sudo apt install python3-colcon-common-extensions

Build the workspace

cd ~/Desktop
mkdir -p ros2_ws/src
cd ros2_ws
colcon build

Installation

1. Clone the Repo

Clone the repository package to your ROS2 workspace /src/ directory.

cd ~/Desktop/ros2_ws/src/
git clone https://github.com/colins-uky/minibot.git

2. Install ROS Dependencies

Minibot borrows a few ROS2 nodes from other packages for publishing raw sensor data. Many of these packages are built by the creators of the sensors themselves.

rplidar_ros

sudo apt install ros-foxy-rplidar-ros

slam_toolbox

sudo apt install ros-foxy-slam-toolbox

3. Install Other Dependencies

Gazebo packages are for developer use and are not required on the robot computer.

Xacro & Joint State Publisher GUI

sudo apt install ros-foxy-xacro ros-foxy-joint-state-publisher-gui

ROS2 Control

sudo apt install ros-foxy-ros2-control ros-foxy-ros2-controllers ros-foxy-gazebo-ros2-control

Launch Minibot

Run the following command the verify the package was installed correctly:

source ./install/setup.bash
ros2 run minibot brb 

Credits

• Colin S.
  • Package Creator