Auto exploration with navigation

This project is designed to run frontier-based exploration on the Qualcomm® Robotics RB5 Development Kit, which is an artificial intelligence (AI) board for makers, learners, and developers. It is based on the Qualcomm® QRB5165 SoC, which is the new generation premium-tier processor for robotics applications. It is designed with the 7 nm process for superior performance and power efficiency.

In this project, when the ROS node is running, the robot will explore its environment until no frontiers could be found. Applications like these can be designed to automatically build a navigation map.

Objective

The main objective for this project is to get familiar with Qualcomm Robotics RB5 development kit, ROS and navigation packages. The project is designed to help developers jumpstart creating their smart autonomous robots, which starts by mapping their environment.

Materials Required / Parts List / Tools

• Turtlebot3 waffle_pi
• Qualcomm Robotics RB5 development Kit

Source Code / Source Examples

• m-exploration
• lds driver
• Turtlebot3
• Turtlebot3 messages
• navigation
• gmapping
• Openslam gmapping
• rosserial

Additional Resources

• ROS
• Turtlebot3 opencr setup

Build / Assembly Instructions

This project uses the Qualcomm Robotics RB5 development kit, which is mounted on the Turtlebot3 and drives the motors through the OpenCR board. The steps below walk you through the setup process for various components used in the project.

1. Assemble the Hardware

The following steps will help you assemble the Turtlebot, OpenCR board and the Qualcomm Robotics RB5 development kit.

Parts used

How to make Power Cable

Power Connection

USB Connection

Assembly

First Layer Assembly

Second Layer Assembly

Third Layer Assembly

Overall Assembly

2. OpenCR setup

The Turtlebot3 is controlled by the OpenCR board. Here is the link of the detailed steps to download and upgrade firmware for ROS1.

http://emanual.robotis.com/docs/en/platform/turtlebot3/opencr_setup/

For short, see below steps.

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# export OPENCR_PORT=/dev/ttyACM0

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# export OPENCR_MODEL=waffle_pi

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# rm -rf ./opencr_update.tar.bz2

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# wget https://github.com/ROBOTIS-GIT/OpenCR-Binaries/raw/master/turtlebot3/ROS1/latest/opencr_update.tar.bz2 && tar -xvf opencr_update.tar.bz2 && cd ./opencr_update && ./update.sh $OPENCR_PORT OPENCR_MODEL.opencr && cd.

3. Qualcomm Robotics RB5 kit setup

3.1 Enable Wi-Fi on Qualcomm Robotics RB5 development kit

change this file with your local wifi's name and password:

# Only WPA-PSK is used. Any valid cipher combination is accepted.

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

network={

ssid="SSID_NAME"

#proto=WPA

key_mgmt=WPA-PSK

pairwise=TKIP CCMP

group=TKIP CCMP

psk="PASSWD"

}

3.2 Install ROS1.0 core packages on Qualcomm Robotics RB5 development kit

3.2.1 Set location

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# apt update

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# apt-get -y install locales iperf

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# export LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# locale-gen en_US en_US.UTF-8

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# update-locale LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 LANG=en_US.UTF-8

3.2.2 Install ROS Melodic

More details can refer http://wiki.ros.org/melodic/Installation/Ubuntu

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list'

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# apt update

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# sudo apt-key adv --keyserver 'hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80' --recv-key C1CF6E31E6BADE8868B172B4F42ED6FBAB17C654

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# sudo apt update

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# sudo apt install ros-melodic-desktop

3.2.3 Install ROS1.0 turtlebot3 and navigation packages

Download ROS1 packages and compile on device

a) turtlebot3 packages

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# mkdir /home/rb5/ros_ws/src -p

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# cd /home/rb5/ros_ws/src

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# git clone https://github.com/ROBOTIS-GIT/hls_lfcd_lds_driver.git

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# cd hls_lfcd_lds_driver

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# git branch melodic-devel remotes/origin/melodic-devel

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# git checkout melodic-devel

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# cd /home/rb5/ros_ws/src

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# git clone https://github.com/ROBOTIS-GIT/turtlebot3_msgs.git

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# cd turtlebot3_msgs

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# git branch melodic-devel remotes/origin/melodic-devel

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# git checkout melodic-devel

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# cd /home/rb5/ros_ws/src

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# git clone https://github.com/ROBOTIS-GIT/turtlebot3.git

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# cd turtlebot3

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# git branch melodic-devel remotes/origin/melodic-devel

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# git checkout melodic-devel

b) rosserial

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# cd /home/rb5/ros_ws/src

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# git clone https://github.com/ros-drivers/rosserial.git

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# cd rosserial

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# git branch melodic-devel remotes/origin/melodic-devel

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# git checkout melodic-devel

c) navigation

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# cd /home/rb5/ros_ws/src

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# git clone https://github.com/ros-planning/navigation.git

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# git clone https://github.com/ros-planning/navigation_msgs.git

d) gmapping

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# cd /home/rb5/ros_ws/src

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# git clone https://github.com/ros-perception/slam_gmapping.git

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# git clone https://github.com/ros-perception/openslam_gmapping.git

e) build all the packages

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# apt-get install ros-melodic-tf2-geometry-msgs ros-melodic-tf2-sensor-msgs

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# cd /home/rb5/ros_ws/

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# source /opt/ros/melodic/setup.bash

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# catkin_make

4. PC setup

Install ROS on Ubuntu 18.04 PC for visualization with Melodic version. For more details, please see: http://wiki.ros.org/melodic/Installation/Ubuntu

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list'

apt update

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver 'hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80' --recv-key C1CF6E31E6BADE8868B172B4F42ED6FBAB17C654

sudo apt update

sudo apt install ros-melodic-desktop

sudo apt-get install ros-melodic-turtlebot3-*

5. Install explore_lite packages

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# cd /home/rb5/ros_ws/src

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# git clone https://github.com/hrnr/m-explore.git

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# cd m-explore

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# git branch melodic-devel remotes/origin/melodic-devel

Usage Instructions

Run ROS packages for auto explore

a) On Qualcomm Robotics RB5 Development kit, Open a terminal and restart sshd

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# /etc/init.d/sshd restart

b) open a new terminal to ssh login

ssh root@ip (example: ssh root@192.168.1.101)

c) in ssh terminal

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://192.168.1.xxx:11311

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# export ROS_IP=192.168.1.xxx

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# export ROS_HOSTNAME=192.168.1.xxx

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# source /home/rb5/ros_ws/devel/setup.bash

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# export TURTLEBOT3_MODEL=waffle_pi

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# roslaunch turtlebot3_bringup turtlebot3_robot.launch

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# roslaunch turtlebot3_navigation turtlebot3_navigation.launch

root@qrb5165-rb5:/# roslaunch /home/rbt/ros_ws/src/m-explore/explore/launch/explore.launch

d) On the host PC, open a new terminal and launch Rviz

source /opt/ros/melodic/setup.bash

export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://192.168.1.xxx:11311

export ROS_IP=192.168.1.xxx

export ROS_HOSTNAME=192.168.1.xxx

rviz -d /opt/ros/melodic/share/turtlebot3_navigation/rviz/turtlebot3_navigation.rviz

Screenshots/pictures of expected result

Qualcomm Robotics RB5 and Qualcomm QRB5165 are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries