I just got an iRobot iCreate base and I've followed the instructions given in ROS Tutorials to setup the turtlebot pc and the workstation. I could successfully ssh into username @ turtlebot through workstation so I'm assuming that is all good. I had an issue with create not able to detect the usb cable which I solved using the detailed answer given for question at ros answers. This solved the problem of "Failed to open port / dev / ttyUSB0" that I was facing before.

Now the next step would be to ssh into the turtlebot (which I've done) and use roslaunch turtlebot_bringup minimal.launch to do whatever the command does (I've no idea what to expect upon launch). But apparently something's amiss since the create base chirps and then powers down after showing [kinect_breaker_enabler-5] process has finished cleanly as output and the log file location (see output below), but I dont see a prompt. I checked the battery and that's charged so that's not the problem. Following is the terminal output.

anshul@AnshulsPC:~$ roslaunch turtlebot_bringup minimal.launch
... logging to /home/anshul/.ros/log/9d936a6a-fbdc-11e3-ba6b-00265e5f3bb9/roslaunch-AnshulsPC-5038.log
Checking log directory for disk usage. This may take awhile.
Press Ctrl-C to interrupt
Done checking log file disk usage. Usage is <1GB.

started roslaunch server http:// 128.110.74.233:48495/

SUMMARY
========

PARAMETERS
 * /cmd_vel_mux/yaml_cfg_file
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/analyzers/digital_io/path
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/analyzers/digital_io/startswith
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/analyzers/digital_io/timeout
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/analyzers/digital_io/type
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/analyzers/mode/path
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/analyzers/mode/startswith
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/analyzers/mode/timeout
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/analyzers/mode/type
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/analyzers/nodes/contains
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/analyzers/nodes/path
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/analyzers/nodes/timeout
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/analyzers/nodes/type
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/analyzers/power/path
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/analyzers/power/startswith
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/analyzers/power/timeout
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/analyzers/power/type
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/analyzers/sensors/path
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/analyzers/sensors/startswith
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/analyzers/sensors/timeout
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/analyzers/sensors/type
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/base_path
 * /diagnostic_aggregator/pub_rate
 * /robot/name
 * /robot/type
 * /robot_description
 * /robot_pose_ekf/freq
 * /robot_pose_ekf/imu_used
 * /robot_pose_ekf/odom_used
 * /robot_pose_ekf/output_frame
 * /robot_pose_ekf/publish_tf
 * /robot_pose_ekf/sensor_timeout
 * /robot_pose_ekf/vo_used
 * /robot_state_publisher/publish_frequency
 * /rosdistro
 * /rosversion
 * /turtlebot_laptop_battery/acpi_path
 * /turtlebot_node/bonus
 * /turtlebot_node/port
 * /turtlebot_node/update_rate
 * /use_sim_time

NODES
  /
    cmd_vel_mux (nodelet/nodelet)
    diagnostic_aggregator (diagnostic_aggregator/aggregator_node)
    kinect_breaker_enabler (create_node/kinect_breaker_enabler.py)
    mobile_base_nodelet_manager (nodelet/nodelet)
    robot_pose_ekf (robot_pose_ekf/robot_pose_ekf)
    robot_state_publisher (robot_state_publisher/robot_state_publisher)
    turtlebot_laptop_battery (linux_hardware/laptop_battery.py)
    turtlebot_node (create_node/turtlebot_node.py)

auto-starting new master
process[master]: started with pid [5055]
ROS_MASTER_URI=http:// 128.110.74.233:11311

setting /run_id to 9d936a6a-fbdc-11e3-ba6b-00265e5f3bb9
process[rosout-1]: started with pid [5068]
started core service [/rosout]
process[robot_state_publisher-2]: started with pid [5081]
process[diagnostic_aggregator-3]: started with pid [5102]
process[turtlebot_node-4]: started with pid [5117]
process[kinect_breaker_enabler-5]: started with pid [5122]
process[robot_pose_ekf-6]: started with pid [5181]
process[mobile_base_nodelet_manager-7]: started with pid [5226]
process[cmd_vel_mux-8]: started with pid [5245]
process[turtlebot_laptop_battery-9]: started with pid [5262]
[WARN] [WallTime: 1403641073.765412] Create : robot not connected yet, sci not available
[WARN] [WallTime: 1403641076.772764] Create : robot not connected yet, sci not available
[kinect_breaker_enabler-5] process has finished cleanly
log file: /home/anshul/.ros/log/9d936a6a-fbdc-11e3-ba6b-00265e5f3bb9/kinect_breaker_enabler-5*.log

Following is the log file: /home/anshul/.ros/log/9d936a6a-fbdc-11e3-ba6b-00265e5f3bb9/kinectbreakerenabler-5*.log output:

[rospy.client][INFO] 2014-06-24 14:20:12,442: init_node, name[/kinect_breaker_enabler], pid[5538]
[xmlrpc][INFO] 2014-06-24 14:20:12,442: XML-RPC server binding to 0.0.0.0:0
[rospy.init][INFO] 2014-06-24 14:20:12,443: ROS Slave URI: [http:// 128.110.74.233:51362/]
[xmlrpc][INFO] 2014-06-24 14:20:12,443: Started XML-RPC server [http:// 128.110.74.233:51362/]
[rospy.impl.masterslave][INFO] 2014-06-24 14:20:12,443: _ready: http:// 128.110.74.233:51362/
[xmlrpc][INFO] 2014-06-24 14:20:12,444: xml rpc node: starting XML-RPC server
[rospy.registration][INFO] 2014-06-24 14:20:12,445: Registering with master node http:// 128.110.74.233:11311
[rospy.init][INFO] 2014-06-24 14:20:12,543: registered with master
[rospy.rosout][INFO] 2014-06-24 14:20:12,544: initializing /rosout core topic
[rospy.rosout][INFO] 2014-06-24 14:20:12,546: connected to core topic /rosout
[rospy.simtime][INFO] 2014-06-24 14:20:12,547: /use_sim_time is not set, will not subscribe to simulated time [/clock] topic
[rospy.internal][INFO] 2014-06-24 14:20:12,820: topic[/rosout] adding connection to [/rosout], count 0
[rospy.core][INFO] 2014-06-24 14:20:20,182: signal_shutdown [atexit]
[rospy.internal][INFO] 2014-06-24 14:20:20,187: topic[/rosout] removing connection to /rosout
[rospy.impl.masterslave][INFO] 2014-06-24 14:20:20,188: atexit

From the logs, I could tell something told the create to power down. And since the log is named with 'kinect', I tried minimal.launch w/ and w/o kinect attached to the turtlebot pc. It doesn't make any difference.

I googled and lot and found a similar (actually exactly the same) problem someone else was having. Based on that I modified the minimal.launch file to explicitly use 'create' variable and also checked that the battery was at /sys/class/power.../BAT0 and not at ../acpi/.. Following are the contents of my minimal.launch:

<launch>
  <arg name="base"       default="$(optenv TURTLEBOT_BASE create)"/>  <!-- create, rhoomba -->
  <arg name="battery"    default="$(optenv TURTLEBOT_BATTERY /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0)"/>  <!-- /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0 in 2.6 or earlier kernels-->
  <arg name="stacks"     default="$(optenv TURTLEBOT_STACKS hexagons)"/>  <!-- circles, hexagons -->
  <arg name="3d_sensor"  default="$(optenv TURTLEBOT_3D_SENSOR kinect)"/>  <!-- kinect, asus_xtion_pro -->
  <arg name="simulation" default="$(optenv TURTLEBOT_SIMULATION false)"/>

  <param name="/use_sim_time" value="$(arg simulation)"/>

  <include file="$(find turtlebot_bringup)/launch/includes/robot.launch.xml">
    <arg name="base" value="$(arg base)" />
    <arg name="stacks" value="$(arg stacks)" />
    <arg name="3d_sensor" value="$(arg 3d_sensor)" />
  </include>
  <include file="$(find turtlebot_bringup)/launch/includes/mobile_base.launch.xml">
    <arg name="base" value="$(arg base)" />
  </include>
  <include file="$(find turtlebot_bringup)/launch/includes/netbook.launch.xml">
    <arg name="battery" value="$(arg battery)" />
  </include>
</launch>

Any clue what I might be missing? Or is this the way bringup works (I guess not)?