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Roomba - TurtleBot1 serial communication for TeleOP

asked 2016-11-24 12:36:52 -0500

Markus gravatar image

updated 2016-11-25 04:12:28 -0500

Hey there,

I have a roomba version 521 and I would like to use it as base of a "turtle Bot". I know this is kind of old stuff cause no one uses these base es anymore. Many use kobuki or directly start with TurtleBot version 3.

Nevertheless I would like to use a roomba version 521 as the base staion of my turtlebot. Now I am searching for software to connect this base station via a Mini - DIN serial port connector to a laptop on which ros indigo 14.04 LTS is running on.

My Problem is I do not find any working software for communicating with ros with my laptop to the roomba. I ended up with this tutorial: wikiRobots/RoombaRobin.

When I tried to test the software I downloaded within this tutorial. And I started:

roslaunch roomba_robin_bringup minimal.launch

I got the following errors:

roslaunch roomba_robin_bringup minimal.launch ...
logging to /home/markus/.ros/log/65038936-b274-11e6-8df8-9cb70de7f81a/roslaunch-turtleBot1-6333.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.

while processing /home/markus/catkin_ws/src/roomba_robin/roomba_robin_bringup/launch/includes/mobile_base.launch.xml:
while processing /home/markus/catkin_ws/src/roomba_robin/roomba_robin_bringup/launch/includes/kobuki/mobile_base.launch.xml:

Invalid roslaunch XML syntax: [Errno 2] No such file or directory:
u'/home/markus/catkin_ws/src/roomba_robin/roomba_robin_bringup/launch/includes/kobuki/mobile_base.launch.xml'
The traceback for the exception was written to the log file

Any ideas how I can solve this issue?

By the way if I connect my serial cable with the laptop and type lsusb I see the following:

Bus 003 Device 006: ID 0403:6001 Future Technology Devices International, Ltd FT232 USB-Serial (UART) IC

Hope if somebody knows where there is still software for the roomba 521 available?

WIth the Tipp of Jacob: Thanks Jacob,

I saw that you have one of the biggest libraries for the Roombas and I already testet it... I followed your tutorial on your Page step by step but I came into some problems when executing

roslaunch ca_driver create_1.launch [publish_tf:=true]

markus@turtleBot1:~/create_ws/create_autonomy/ca_driver/launch$ catkin build ----------------------------------------------------------- Profile: default Extending: [env] /opt/ros/indigo Workspace:
/home/markus/create_ws ----------------------------------------------------------- Source Space: [exists] /home/markus/create_ws/src Log Space: [exists] /home/markus/create_ws/logs Build Space: [exists] /home/markus/create_ws/build Devel Space: [exists] /home/markus/create_ws/devel Install Space: [unused] /home/markus/create_ws/install DESTDIR: [unused] None ----------------------------------------------------------- Devel Space Layout: linked Install Space Layout: None ----------------------------------------------------------- Additional CMake Args: None Additional Make Args: None Additional catkin Make Args: None Internal Make Job Server: True Cache Job Environments: False ----------------------------------------------------------- Whitelisted Packages: None Blacklisted Packages: None ----------------------------------------------------------- Workspace configuration appears valid. ----------------------------------------------------------- [build] No packages were found in the source space '/home/markus/create_ws/src' [build] No packages to be built. [build] Package table is up to date.
[build] Summary: All 0 packages succeeded!
[build] Ignored: None.
[build] Warnings: None.
[build] Abandoned: None.
[build] Failed: None.
[build] Runtime: 0.3 seconds total.
markus@turtleBot1 ...

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answered 2016-11-24 14:29:49 -0500

jacobperron gravatar image

Hi Markus,

You could check out my driver create_autonomy for controlling the Roomba base as a replacement to roomba_robin. The create_1.launch file should do the trick.

Jacob

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as comments are not allowed to be that long I just posted an answer above ... Would be glad if you could help me.

Markus gravatar image Markus  ( 2016-11-25 03:44:33 -0500 )edit

catkin is not detecting any packages. Is the create_autonomy repository actually cloned inside catkin_ws/src ? Also, the square brackets [publish_tf:=true] are to indicate it is optional, meaning you shouldn't actual type those. You can just run roslaunch ca_driver create_1.launch.

jacobperron gravatar image jacobperron  ( 2016-11-25 12:42:29 -0500 )edit

Hm I fixed that issue now. However I get a new Problem when executing> roslaunch ca_driver create_1.launch
It says the following> Unable to contact my own server at [ http://130.83.118.240:32925/ ]. This usually means that the network is not configured properly.

Markus gravatar image Markus  ( 2016-11-29 06:26:53 -0500 )edit

After solving this error I would like to know how do I use: rostopic pub power_led std_msgs/UInt8MultiArray 1 2 the above code is not workin what do I have to change

Markus gravatar image Markus  ( 2016-11-29 06:54:44 -0500 )edit

You might find rosrun rqt_publisher rqt_publisher easier to use. I'm not sure of the proper command line syntax.

jacobperron gravatar image jacobperron  ( 2016-11-30 13:06:03 -0500 )edit

As far as network issues go, I would ask around other threads. See http://answers.ros.org/question/23644...

jacobperron gravatar image jacobperron  ( 2016-11-30 13:08:50 -0500 )edit

The command line syntax is:

rostopic pub -1 /set_ascii std_msgs/UInt8MultiArray '{data:[34,35]}'

rostopic pub /power_led std_msgs/UInt8Multiray '{data:[90]}'
Markus gravatar image Markus  ( 2016-11-30 17:15:29 -0500 )edit

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Asked: 2016-11-24 12:36:52 -0500

Seen: 353 times

Last updated: Nov 25 '16