Phobos Software

Software for the University of Southampton Spaceflight Socieity's Phobos Rover.

Written in Rust.

Architecture

:warning: Note: The architecture is currently undergoing a rework, which is being tracked in this issue.

There are two executables and two libraries:

• rov_exec: Rover executable - runs on the Rover's Raspberry Pi 4.
• gnd_exec: Ground station executbale - runs at the groundstation and commands the Rover.
• comms_if: Communications interface library providing for coherent Telemetry and Telecommand (TmTc) between the ground station and rover.
• util: Utility library including logging, archiving, and any other concept which is used in both executbales but does not fit into the reams of communications.

Scripts

rov_exec is capable of running scripts (which are stored in the scripts directory). To run a specific script append it's path to the end of the run command, such as:

RUST_BACKTRACE=1 cargo run --bin rov_exec scripts/demo_01.prs

Requirements

The following are required to be able to build and run the software:

• rust - Follow the guide on the rust website for your OS

  Note: For Windows you should be using the x86_64-pc-windows-msvc default build target, not i686-pc-windows-msvc.

• python - Currently the electronic driver uses a python interface, though this should be changed in the future. For now this means that python 3.7+ and the associated development libs are required. 64 bit is required.

  Linux: sudo apt install python3-dev should do the trick.

  Windows: Either use anaconda, which has the dll, or place the correct version of the dll in the same directory as python37.exe.

  The following python modules are required:

  • pyzmq
  • numpy
  • scipy
  • pillow
• cmake - The network library requires CMake to build, which can be downloaded from https://cmake.org/.

Development and Executing

Before running the software setup an environment variable to point to the root of the phobos_sw directory. This is used to easily find the sessions and params directories. For example, in your .bashrc file:

export SUSF_PHOBOS_SW_ROOT="/c/Users/{USR}/Development/SUSF-Robotics-and-Software/phobos_sw"

For testing use cargo run --bin <BINARY_NAME> to execute a specific binary.

Use cargo build to just build and not run.

When running real events (like competition missions) use cargo run --release --bin <BINARY_NAME> to use release mode, which optimises the binaries and makes execution far faster.

rov_exec uses the eyre crate for error handling which produces nice backtraces. To enable them prepend RUST_BACKTRACE=1 to your run command. Will not work properly under release mode due to a lack of symbols.

I recommend using rust-analyser for VSCode linting/development.

Tools

Two tools (shell scripts) are provided for ease of use:

• clearsessions: Clear all session directories. Make sure to backup the ones you want!
• synctopi: Send the current directory to a raspberry pi (or anyting else, make sure you change the username, ip address, or path if needed)