Volksbot ROS2 branch

This branch contains the in progess migration of the volksbot package to ROS2 after applying the ros-migration-tool. After successful use of the migration tool not all ROS code snippets are converted into ROS2, like the subscriber, publisher and services. This further migration is now done manually.

Expanded Joystick Driver for Volksbot ROS2

This branch is used to convert the old joystick backend into a new and expanded ROS2 implementation. It will expand the useability and agility of the original implementation to allow easier project integration and force feedback.

The new implementation will no longer use the /dev/input/js* joystick devices but the more general /dev/input/event* event devices.

It is usually advised to use the general event interface instead of the the more constraint joystick interface.

Information

To use the general event interface the joysticks event file handle needs to be ruled to a non dynamic device handle. At the moment only the Logitech F710 and the Microsoft X-Box One joysticks are used and will be fully integrated. Therefor the backend will currently only implement these joysticks.

However integrating further joysticks is easily possible by adapting the applied rules and adding the necessary interface implementations.

How to use

Unlike the old implementation it is no longer necessary to preemptively define the joysticks /dev/input/* Path. It will now automatically select one of the connected (and implemented) Joysticks.

If multiple implemented joysticks are recognized, the one with the lowest number of its /dev/input/js* handle will be selected. This is usually the first connected joystick device.

Sick LMS

Info

The library used is the official ROS2 library version 3.5.0 for sick scanners.

Building

Building the library for the lms100

colcon build --packages-select sick_scan_xd --cmake-args " -DROS_VERSION=2" " -DLDMRS=0" " -DSCANSEGMENT_XD=0" --event-handlers console_direct+

TODO: (if possible?) add cmake args to the cmake file used for building

Running / Launching

Launching the sick driver for the lms100 ! Attention: must set the correct host-ip manually

ros2 run sick_scan_xd sick_generic_caller ./src/sick_scan_xd/launch/sick_lms_1xx.launch hostname:=192.168.0.XX

TODO: configure and add laser specific settings like in the ROS1 volksbot parameter.yaml

Building

Hint: When your OS freezes on building consider using less parallel workers by adding --parallel-workers n to the colcon build command. (2 or 3 should usually work for everyone)

When building for the first follow the following steps:

1. source ros2

source ${ros2_distro}

2. only build the SICK LMS package

colcon build --packages-select sick_scan_xd --cmake-args " -DROS_VERSION=2" " -DLDMRS=0" " -DSCANSEGMENT_XD=0" --event-handlers console_direct+

3. source the project

source ./install/setup.bash

4. build all other packages

colcon build --packages-ignore sick_scan_xd

For normal building use the following command

Make sure you are source into the workspace with source ./install/setup.bash

colcon build --packages-ignore sick_scan_xd

Logging

Enter the following line in your terminal to set the logging directory for all logs:

export ROS_LOG_DIR=./log/latest

the logs can then be found under the linked folder ./logs/latest/ where latest/ is a symlink to the folder of the latest build