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Hydro_Instructions_Start.txt
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Getting Started
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R.O.S. or Robot Operating System is used to communicate between a computer and a robot. ROS currently uses 3 languages: C++, Python and Java. I am using ROS Java although it is still under active development and so features are volatile.
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ROS options
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1a) Use a Virtual machine disk image with Ubuntu and ROS already installed. Instructions here:
http://nootrix.com/2012/09/virtualizing-ros/
1b) Install ROS natively on Ubuntu or Mac OS X. (As of 2012 I was unable to get a working install of ROS on Mac OS X)
1c) Install Ubuntu on a separate partition on your machine and dual boot. Then install ROS and ROS Java. Instructions here:
http://wiki.ros.org/ROS/Installation
I have used the third option as this is the best option available to me. I am using Ubuntu 13.04 and ROS Hydro as this is the best combination for my laptop.
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Complete the ROS Tutorials
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It is important to complete the tutorials on the ROS wiki. These not only provide a good introduction to the various tools that you will need whilst using ROS. It also helps you setup your ROS Environment which is needed for the next step.
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Installing ROS Java
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The official instructions for installing ROS can be found here:
http://wiki.ros.org/rosjava/Tutorials/hydro/Installation
<Date of writing 25/9/2013>
However I used a different set of instructions which I will outline below:
1) Ensure apt-get is up to date
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
2) Install the Java Runtime Environment and Java Development Kit
To install ROS Java you obviously need to install a version of Java. If you already have Java installed you may skip this step.
(I am using openjdk however there are alternate releases of Java for linux)
sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jre
sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jdk
3) Install Netbeans
I use Netbeans as my IDE so will install that now.
sudo apt-get install netbeans
4) Install python-wstool
sudo apt-get install python-wstool
5) cd into your workspace
Mine is:
roscd
cd ../src
6) Make a directory for rosjava
mkdir -p rosjava
7) Initialise the empty repository and add the rosjava files
wstool init -j4 ./rosjava/src https://raw.github.com/rosjava/rosjava_tools/hydro-devel/rosjava.rosinstall
8) Make the rosjava files
cd rosjava
catkin_make
Rosjava should now be installed and working properly.
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Installing rosjava_build_tools
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Using the Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect with ROS
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I am using the Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect to track skeletons with ROS Java for various projects.
I have previously used the openni package to track skeletons but development of this seems to have been discontinued so I will use freenect_stack. Documentation here:
http://wiki.ros.org/freenect_stack
1) Install the files
sudo apt-get install ros-hydro-freenect-stack
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Using a Pan Tilt Unit (PTU)
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A Pan Tilt Unit as the name suggests allows you to adjust the pan and tilt of the thing connected to the unit (I am using it with a kinect camera on top). I have the Pan Tilt Unit connected via USB to my computer.
I am using the driver found on Washington University's code repository which can be found here:
https://code.google.com/p/wu-robotics/source/browse/
1) Navigate to where you want to put the files.
2) Checkout the code from the repository
svn checkout http://wu-robotics.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/wu_ptu ptu
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Creating a urdf model from a .xacro file
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Ros uses urdf models to keep track of the size and shape of a robot, the direction the robot is facing, the position of the robots joints and many more things.
Urdf files are not user editable and are generated from .xacro files using a python script which is included with Ros. .xacro files are just xml and so are user editable.
The script to convert .xacro -> urdf is:
rosrun xacro xacro.py model.xacro > model.urdf