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Quick guide for setting up the Pioneer LX onboard machine when reinstalling the OS. The same guide applies if setting up an external machine to run the MobileSim simulator offline.

Linux Ubuntu 16.04 and ROS Kinetic setup

Linux Ubuntu

  • Linux Ubuntu 16.04 (the Pioneer LX is currently running Xubuntu 16.04)

ROS Kinetic
Robot Operating System (ROS) version ROS Kinetic (requires Ubuntu 16.04) is used.

Using ROS
ROS tutorials: Go through the whole beginner tutorial while setting up ROS. When making a workspace, use catkin NOT rosbuild. Catkin is used for building packages.

Guides on how to create and build packages can be found in the ROS turorials:

Quick setup Bash script
A Bash script has been written in order to automate the setup of ROS Kinetic and other dependencies on the Pioneer LX: pioneerlx_setup

Quick pointers

There is a good chance that someone will need to re-install the OS of the robot base in the future. If you for some reason need to re-install the OS on the Pioneer LX, there is a few critical things to remember:

  • DO NOT use and dashes (-) in the username or password. If you do this you will not be able to use MobileEyes with the Cyborg. There might be other symbols MobileEyes will not accept, so be smart when choosing username and password.
  • During the installation process you should select automatic login without password. If you do not do this you will need to use a keyboard whenever you start the Cyborg or write a configuration file in the OS for this.
  • The startup script for the startup box must be added to the list of programs that start automatically on startup.
  • For Aria to be able to connect to the peripherals you must make one specific Aria file and give your Ubuntu user access to the dialout.
  • Dependencies and programs must be installed.
  • To state the obvious: make backups of all modified files, scripts, code and maps and place them in the same location.

You can install a new OS from a USB like you would on any regular personal computer.

Make the startup script auto-run at login

Small changes to the procedure may be needed for other Ubuntu versions. For Xubuntu 16.04 the following proceedure works:

  1. Open the Settings Manager.
  2. Go to the Session and Startup configuration.
  3. Under the sub-menu Application Autostart you can add and configure what applications and scripts will run at start.
  4. The startup script I created is added under the name start script. The command I used can be found below.

The Correct Command Entry

I wanted the script to run in a new terminal window so it would be easier to terminate it. If it is not launched in a terminal window, we would have to use a process manager like Htop to terminate the script in stead of just closing the terminal. To run the script in a new terminal I enter the following command in the command entry for the start script discussed above:

xfce4-terminal --command "python /home/cyborg/start_scripts/start.py"

Add User to Dialout

Use the following command, but change MyUser to the user name of the Cyborg’s Ubuntu user:

sudo adduser MyUser dialout

Installing Software

The Software checklist is the following:

Aria and ARNL can be downloaded from the Mobile Robots web page, and the installation script is available on the NTNU Cyborg Github page. Do not bother running the script, but rather run each individual command one by one.

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