ROS Packages for Scout Mobile Robot

Packages

This repository contains minimal packages to control the scout robot using ROS.

  • scout_bringup: launch and configuration files to start ROS nodes
  • scout_base: a ROS wrapper around wrp_sdk to monitor and control the scout robot
  • scout_msgs: scout related message definitions

Communication interface setup

Please refer to the README of "wrp_sdk" package for setup of communication interfaces.

Note on CAN interface on Nvidia Jetson Platforms

Nvidia Jeston TX2/Xavier/XavierNX have CAN controller(s) integrated in the main SOC. If you're using a dev kit, you need to add a CAN transceiver for proper CAN communication.

Basic usage of the ROS package

  1. Install dependent libraries

    $ sudo apt install -y libasio-dev
    $ sudo apt install -y ros-$ROS_DISTRO-teleop-twist-keyboard
    
  2. Clone the packages into your catkin workspace and compile

    (the following instructions assume your catkin workspace is at: ~/catkin_ws/src)

    $ cd ~/catkin_ws/src
    $ git clone https://github.com/westonrobot/wrp_sdk.git
    $ git clone https://github.com/westonrobot/scout_base.git
    $ cd ..
    $ catkin_make
    
  3. Launch ROS nodes

  • Start the base node for the real robot

    $ roslaunch scout_bringup scout_minimal.launch
    

    The scout_bringup scout_minimal.launch has 4 parameters:

    • port_name: Determines port to communicate with robot. Default = "can0"
    • simulated_robot: Indicates if launching with a simulation. Default = "false"
    • model_xacro: Indicates the target .xacro file for the publishing of tf frames. Default = scout_v2.xacro
    • odom_topic_name: Sets the name of the topic which calculated odometry is published. Defaults = "odom"

    or (if you're using a serial port)

    $ roslaunch scout_bringup scout_minimal_uart.launch
    
  • Start the keyboard tele-op node

    $ roslaunch scout_bringup scout_teleop_keyboard.launch
    

    SAFETY PRECAUSION:

    The default command values of the keyboard teleop node are high, make sure you decrease the speed commands before starting to control the robot with your keyboard! Have your remote controller ready to take over the control whenever necessary.

Further usage of ROS packages

A brief overview on how to use this ROS package for your custom setup of the scout platform is described in this segment. A detailed example of such applications can be found in the scout_navigation repository.

Additional Sensors

It's likely that you may want to add additional sensors to the scout mobile platform, such as a Lidar for navigation. In such cases, a new .xacro file needs to be created to describe the relative pose of the new sensor with respect to the robot base, so that the sensor frame can be reflected in the robot tf tree.

A sample .xacro file is present in this repository. The base .xacro file of an empty scout platform is included in this sample, and additional links are defined.

The nodes in this ROS package are made to handle only the control of the scout base and publishing of the status. Additional nodes may need to be created by the user to handle the sensors.

Alternative Odometry Calculation

Another frequent usage would be using sensor fusion of an IMU. In such a scenario, the odometry calculated by this package would likely be needed to publish under a custom name, instead of "/odom". Therefore, the name of the topic can be set by using

$ scout_bringup scout_minimal.launch odom_topic_name:="<custom_name>"

Summary of ROS packages

  • scout_minimal.launch: Creates ros node that
Description
ROS Support Package for Scout Robot
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