Using the UiAbot

This page contains guides for using the UiAbot with the provided software. These guides are based on the implementation done previosly, and expects that all software is installed and set up according to Installation and Setup.

Regardless of the guide, remember to always source ROS 2 and the built uiabot_ws workspace. This is important to do on both the jetson, and the pc that is going to visualize and command the UiAbot. If this is not done, there will be issues with showing the UiAbot mesh files in RViz.

source /opt/ros/galactic/setup.bash
source /home/jetson/uiabot_ws/install/local_setup.bash

Driving remotely with keyboard

This guide launches all nodes required to drive the UiAbot remotely using the pc keyboard.

  1. Run the following command on the jetson to launch the control and odrive_ros2 nodes:

    ros2 launch uiabot teleop.launch.py

  2. Run the following command on the pc to launch the teleop_twist_keyboard node:

    export ROS_DOMAIN_ID=5
ros2 run teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard

Visualizing mechanical odometry, LiDAR, and IMU

This guide launches all nodes required to drive the UiAbot remotely using the pc keyboard, in addition to the sensor nodes for the LiDAR and IMU. It also launches the mechanical odometry node which calculates the robot position relative to the intial frame. The robot description is also published to the network, which enables the visualization in RViz.

  1. Run the following command on the jetson to launch the control and sensor nodes:

    ros2 launch uiabot teleop_perception.launch.py

  2. Run the following command on the pc to launch the teleop_twist_keyboard node:

    export ROS_DOMAIN_ID=5
ros2 run teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard

  3. Run the following command on the pc to launch RViz:

    export ROS_DOMAIN_ID=5
rviz2

SLAM

This guide launches all nodes required to drive the UiAbot remotely using the pc keyboard, and performing SLAM.

  1. Run the following command on the jetson to launch the control, sensor, and SLAM nodes:

    ros2 launch uiabot teleop_slam.launch.py

  2. Run the following command on the pc to launch the teleop_twist_keyboard node:

    export ROS_DOMAIN_ID=5
ros2 run teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard

  3. Run the following command on the pc to launch RViz with map visualization:

    export ROS_DOMAIN_ID=5
ros2 launch nav2_bringup rviz_launch.py

  4. When you are finished mapping, run the following command to save the map on jetson.

    ros2 run nav2_map_server map_saver_cli -f /home/jetson/uiabot_ws/src/uiabot/map/<map_name>

Localization and navigation

This guide launches all nodes required to drive the UiAbot using nav2 in an existing map.

  1. Run the following command on the jetson to launch the control, sensor, localization, and navigation nodes. Remember to update the map path to match your map:

    ros2 launch uiabot localization_navigation.launch.py map_path:=/home/jetson/uiabot_ws/src/uiabot/map/map_mezzanine.yaml

  2. Run the following command on the pc to launch RViz with map visualization:

    export ROS_DOMAIN_ID=5
ros2 launch nav2_bringup rviz_launch.py

SLAM and navigation

This guide launches all nodes required to drive the UiAbot using nav2 in while performing SLAM.

  1. Run the following command on the jetson to launch the control, sensor, SLAM and navigation nodes:

    ros2 launch uiabot slam_navigation.launch.py

  2. Run the following command on the pc to launch RViz with map visualization:

    export ROS_DOMAIN_ID=5
ros2 launch nav2_bringup rviz_launch.py