robotics-prototype

This repo contains the Robotics software team code.

Contributing and Development Environment Instructions

Firstly, this project is built in Python 3.6+ and JavaScript (ES6). You need to have a version of Python installed that is 3.6+. Make sure that whenever you use python, python3 or python3.6 or whatever later on meets this requirement.

Secondly, it is imperative you use a virtual env (instead of your system Python) to use/contribute to the project, else things could get messy.

Prerequisites

Make sure you are using Ubuntu 16.04 (The ROS distribution we use doesn't support anything newer than 16.04).

Make sure the following are installed

$ sudo apt install python-pip
$ sudo apt install virtualenv
$ sudo apt install git

You will also need python3.6, which is by default not in Ubuntu 16.04's APT's available packages.

Installing python3.6

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install python3.6

Setup the local repository

$ cd ~/
$ mkdir Programming
$ cd Programming
$ git clone --recursive https://github.com/space-concordia-robotics/robotics-prototype robotics-prototype

A local repository should now be created. robotics-prototype is the root directory for this project.

If you do not have access to the GitLab repository, you will not be able to successfully authenticate to clone rover2018-elec. This is fine as long as you do not need the PDS code. If you don't have gitlab access then simply press Ctrl + C

If you have access to the GitLab repository, you will need additional setups for GitLab pulling and pushing. Please see how to create and add your SSH key and this issue you may encounter

Setup virtualenv

$ cd robotics-prototype
$ virtualenv -p `which python3.6` venv
$ source venv/bin/activate

You should see a (venv) appear at the beginning of your terminal prompt (in Linux and Mac at least) indicating that you are working inside the virtualenv. Now when you install something:

(venv) $ pip install <package>

It will get installed in the venv, and not conflict with other projects installed system-wide.

Install dependencies

(venv) $ pip install -r requirements.txt -r requirements-dev.txt

Setup setuptools

Still in the root directory,

(venv) $ python setup.py develop
(venv) $ pytest

Running pytest without doing python setup.py develop will give a ModuleNotFound error. To read up more on this, click here

To deactivate virtualenv, run deactivate.

Install ROS-Kinetic

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ROBOTIS-GIT/robotis_tools/master/install_ros_kinetic.sh
chmod 755 ./install_ros_kinetic.sh
bash ./install_ros_kinetic.sh

To see exactly what happened during the installation of ROS-Kinetic, you can read the script file located in which ever directory it was downloaded in. Your ~/.bashrc file was modified, and so to make use of the new changes, you should restart your terminal.

To verify ROS-Kinetic has been successfully installed, you should do

$ roscore

In the output you should see included: * /rosdistro: kinetic

To stop a running process in the command line, press Ctrl-C

Install rosbridge-suite

$ sudo apt install ros-kinetic-rosbridge-suite

To verify that its working, deactivate venv with deactivate

$ roslaunch rosbridge_server rosbridge_websocket.launch

You will need venv activated for everything except the above command until this issue is resolved

Install ROS nodes for camera

To successfully build the ROS packages, you will need these dependencies.

sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-cv-camera
sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-web-video-server

Setup catkin workspaces

The first catkin workspace was automatically generated during the scripted installation of ROS, you can see catkin_ws in your ~ directory.

You need to setup another catkin workspace in robot/rospackages

$ cd ~/Programming/robotics-prototype/robot/rospackages
$ catkin_make

.bashrc edits

You should add this to your ~/.bashrc file. To automatically open ~/.bashrc using the GNU nano text editor, you can run eb. (this shortcut was added in your .bashrc file during the scripted ROS installation, among a few others)

#competition mode
#export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://172.16.1.30:11311
#export ROS_HOSTNAME=$USER

. ~/Programming/robotics-prototype/robot/rospackages/devel/setup.bash
. ~/Programming/robotics-prototype/venv/bin/activate
source ~/Programming/robotics-prototype/robot/basestation/config/.bash_aliases

Open a new terminal for changes to apply. You should automatically have a virtual environment activated. The last line added a couple of aliases. You can read the .bash_aliases file to see all the new aliases.

Setup env.js

You will need to provide the IP that the GUI will work with. By running this script, everything is handled.

./robot/basestation/env.sh > robot/basestation/static/js/env.js

Run the GUI

Firstly, in a new terminal you should run rosgui (this is one of the new aliases in .bash_aliases that you added) to launch a ROS server

Back in the original terminal, you can make use of the base alias, to be automatically directed to the basestation directory, and then run the app.py file.

$ base
$ python app.py

Alternatively, after running rosgui you can run startgui to run the GUI. If you run startgui it will also run the updateEnv alias which makes sure that env.js is setup.

ffmpeg

For the features of capturing a snapshot and recording the camera streams we require ffmpeg:

sudo apt install ffmpeg

You can read about the formatting guide here

Make sure to setup the git hooks

Using Git

For a quick primer on our workflow using git, CLICK HERE :)

Git hooks

This explains how to setup git hooks which prepend an issue number to a commit message, and verify branch naming conventions. Git hooks are located in the local .git/hooks file of each repo, so initializing this hook in the this repo will not change any other repos you might have.

Setting up git hooks

Git hooks are important for performing repository validity checks. To setup git hooks using Git Bash, run the following commands from the root of the repository (ex: from ~/Programming/robotics-prototype/):

cp commit-message-hook.sh .git/hooks/prepare-commit-msg
cp branch-name-verification.sh .git/hooks/post-checkout

If you're on windows, install Git Bash to be able to run the same commands.

The commit hook prepender and branch verification hook

Now, when ever you using git commit -m commit-message-hook will prepend the issue number to your message. This will show up in the repo as [#<issue number>], so there is no longer a need to add this to your commit message. This will work as long as your branches are named using our branch naming standards defined in our wiki, otherwise the commit will be aborted. For more information on our conventions check here.

In order to write a long commit message using git commit -m, write a concise title and then press enter twice. Then, type as long a message as is appropriate and close the quotation mark. This ensures it will be formatted nicely on github.

Finish the commit and git push as usual.

Lastly, the branch-verification-hook will verify if the names of newly created branches follow our naming conventions explained here. Note that this hook will only run after entering git checkout , and not when the branch is created.

Cloning and Pulling

We are using git submodules in robotics-prototype. This means that we are using code that is external to our repository. To ensure that it also downloads all the packages from the external repository, use the commands below :

Clone : git clone --recursive https://github.com/space-concordia-robotics/robotics-prototype

Pull : git pull; git submodule update --init --recursive

If you do not have access to the GitLab repository, you will not be able to successfully authenticate to clone rover2018-elec. This is fine as long as you do not need the PDS code.