Arduino Firmware

Install dependencies

1. Use rosdep to install all the dependencies, or you can do it manually:

sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-rosserial-arduino
sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-rosserial

or

sudo apt-get install ros-indigo-rosserial-arduino
sudo apt-get install ros-indigo-rosserial

2. Fetch the git submodules (libraries):

git submodule update --init --recursive

3. Install the Arduino IDE for Linux

How to build and upload the firmware

Note: you CANNOT build it using Arduino IDE. Instead, use catkin to manage the firmware just as other nodes. Run the following command to compile and upload the firmware.

catkin_make arduino_node_firmware_oneForAll-upload

If you are using catkin tools, run this instead:

catkin build --no-deps arduino_node --make-args arduino_node_firmware_oneForAll-upload

Structure

All the sensors implement the abstract class SensorReader, which offers a uniform interface for all the sensors.

The Timer functionality is implement using polling because of the stupid incapability between Timer library and ros_serial. In the future consider using Timer1 library.

How this interacts with ROS

• Run this first to forward Arduino message: roslaunch arduino_node ros_serial.launch
  • You may need to change the serial port name (The name can be seen in Arduino IDE)
• Published:
  • /encoder: the speed information of motor, using arduino_msg::Motor
  • /imu: absolute pose information, using geometry_msg::Vector3Stamped
    • x field contains the angle in xy plain
    • y filed contains angular velocity (but no one use that)
    • z field is always 0
• Subscribed:
  • /cmd_vel: set the motor desired speed.
    • You can publish in terminal like this: rostopic pub /cmd_vel geometry_msgs/Twist '[0.2, 0, 0]' '[0, 0, 0]' -l
  • /tunePID: set Kp, Ki and Kd
    • You can publish in terminal like this: rostopic pub /tunePID_L geometry_msgs/Vector3 '{x: 10, y: 5, z: 10}' -1

FAQ

• It builds successfully but won't upload
  • First check that the port name is /dev/ttyACM0, if not, edit the PORT part in firmware/CMakeList.txt AND change the port value in launch/ros_serial.launch to /dev/ttyACM0
  • Unplug the USB, plug it back and try again.