robosub_ws

This is the top level repository for the UR@B AUV for the Robosub competition. It is meant to be cloned as a ROS2 workspace, and contains the scripts to install all necessary packages.

Getting Started

[Windows with ubuntu 20] The recommended installation process is to go to the robosub directory and run

bash scripts/install_scripts/install-ros-foxy.sh

[Mac with ubuntu 22]

bash scripts/install_scripts/install-ros-humble.sh

which will install ROS2 Foxy, Gazebo 11, download the necessary repositories, install the requirements using rosdep, and setup your ~/.bashrc for future use. Then, run

colcon build --symlink-install

which will build the necessary files.

Running the sub

Make sure you have sourced the foxy setup file, gazebo setup file, and robosub setup file already (this is done for you in the install script). Then run each command in a different terminal. We recommend using tmux to run the commands in separate panes so you can see all the outputs.

Teleop Mode

1. ros2 launch simulator robosub.launch will spawn Gazebo with the RoboSub 2019 world
2. ros2 launch sub_descriptions upload_rexrov_default.launch.py x:=10 y:=-10 z:=-10 will spawn in our submarine into Gazebo.
3. ros2 launch uuv_control_cascaded_pid key_board_velocity.launch model_name:=rexrov will start the PID controllers for the sub and the thruster manager.
4. ros2 run uuv_teleop vehicle_keyboard_teleop.py --ros-args -r output:=/rexrov/cmd_vel to use a keyboard to send commands to the motor controllers.

Position PID Mode

1. ros2 launch simulator robosub.launch will spawn Gazebo with the RoboSub 2019 world
2. ros2 launch sub_descriptions upload_rexrov_default.launch.py x:=10 y:=-10 z:=-10 will spawn in our submarine into Gazebo.
3. ros2 launch uuv_control_cascaded_pid position_hold.launch model_name:=rexrov will start the PID nodes and thruster manager. Alternatively, you can just run the orienatation controller with ros2 launch controls orientation_hold.launch model_name:=rexrov.
4. ros2 run controls pose_publisher will ask for the cmd_pose.

More Info

VCS

UR@B takes advantage of vcs in order to pull and manage repositories and dependencies.

Pro Tip: To avoid having the keep entering your github username and password for pushing private repos you can run git config --global credentials.helper store to save your username and password to the machine. However, make sure you only do this on a computer that only you use since it stores your password in unencrypted plaintext.

Repos Lists

Overlay repos are repositories directly managed by UR@B and that provide the core software for the platform.

• master.repos - pull the master head of all core UR@B packages

Underlay repos are third-party repositories but are required as dependencies in a semi-managed state (i.e. apt install either do not exist or do not give the desired control over the software versioning, etc.).

• deps.repos - pulls all external dependencies at the head of their "development" branch. Note the branch name may not be development but should be the branch the represents the most current version of the software suitable for our platform (in many packages for example this may be the ros2 branch). This is used for nightly and development builds.

• deps_release.repos - pulls dependencies at a known commits compatible with the release software. This is used for master builds.

Remember to add any new repos that are added in one of the .repos files to the .gitignore.

In order to import the repos, run vcs import < {file}.repos in the src/ folder. Usually, you will want to do the following

vcs import < ../repos/master.repos
vcs import < ../repos/deps.repos

Pro Tip: If you want to update repositories (fetch remote) installed with vcs simply run vcs custom --args remote update in the directory with the repositories you wish to update.

Dependencies

All dependencies will be automatically installed in the install script using rosdep with

rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y

Building

We use the ROS2 standard colcon build tool to build our packages. After running the install script, you should now be able to successfully run colcon build --symlink-install to build your workspace. Afterwards, do source install/setup.bash to make sure the packages are visible to ROS2.

Contributing and Code Versioning

Development should proceed as follows.

• All new features require a new branch on the package it will be in. These branches should be made off the master branch.
• Once a stable fully tested version of the branch code is finished, it will be merged into the master branch.