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Installing the software for a Roomba
Description: This tutorial will guide you through the process of installing all the necessary software to run a LSE Roomba on its netbook.Tutorial Level: BEGINNER
Contents
Introduction
At the LSE each Roomba has its own netbook running ROS allowing it to work autonomously. This tutorial takes you through the steps necessary to get the netbook ready. You might want to skip some steps, depending on the current state of your netbook.
Install Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on the Roomba netbook
Currently we are using Ubuntu 10.04 on all computers and robots at the LSE. You will need a USB flash drive with at least 1Gb for this step.
On another computer download Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop Edition (the Netbook edition is crap!) and put it into the USB flash drive. You can find more details on how to do this at http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download
- Plug the USB flash drive into the netbook.
- Turn the laptop on and press thee "ESC" key repeatedly until a console "Please select boot device" appears.
- Select the USB device and hit Enter
- Follow the steps to install Ubuntu.
- The username for all Roomba netbooks is usually roomba.
Some of the Eee PCs in the LSE have some problems connection over WiFi to the internet. If you are having problems with the WiFi see this tutorial.
Software Installation
Before you install ROS there are a few apps that might come in handy and should be installed. Start by update apt repository, open a terminal window and:
sudo apt-get update
Subversion
Install subversion:
sudo apt-get install subversion
Mercurial
Install mercurial:
sudo apt-get install mercurial
Secure Shell
Install Secure Shell to allow remote connections:
sudo apt-get install ssh
Chrony
Clock synchronization is important for ROS. Chrony has been found to be the best ntp client by the ROS community. Start by manually syncing NTP:
sudo ntpdate ntp.ubuntu.com
Then install Chrony:
sudo apt-get install chrony
Installing ROS
Right now we are using C-Turtle on all our Roombas. Follow the Base install of ROS for Ubuntu 10.04 here.
If you wish you can install Diamondback instead. Follow the Desktop full install of ROS for Ubuntu 10.04 here.
Downloading the LSE stacks
Finally you need to download the LSE stacks, including the Roomba stack. Create a folder under home called myStacks. Next press "CTRL+h" to see hidden files and open .bashrc with gedit. Add the following line to the end of the file:
export ROS_PACKAGE_PATH=~/myStacks:$ROS_PACKAGE_PATH
Save .bashrc and close it. The folder myStacks is now on the ROS package path, and this is where we are going to store the stacks we make.
Next we need to install rosinstall. Follow the installation instruction under section 3 found here.
The next step downloading the roomba.rosinstall file into myStacks. Open a terminal window and:
cd myStacks rosinstall ~/myStacks roomba.rosinstall /opt/ros/c-turtle
And that's it! Now all you need to do if any stack is updated is open a new terminal window and:
cd myStacks rosinstall .
Don't forget you still need to rosmake the packages on myStacks. Happy researching!
