ARC596 - Tutorial 7 - ROS

ARC596 - Tutorial 7 - ROS

• ARC596: Embodied Computation
• Professor: Daniela Mitterberger - mitterberger@princeton.edu
• Assistant Instructor: Kirill Volchinskiy - kvolchinskiy@princeton.edu

Requirements

1. Rhinoceros 7
2. Github Desktop
3. Anaconda
4. Unity 2022.3.3f1

   Note: When developing for Android, the Android SDK and Java JDK have to be ticked in the installation modules when installing Unity.
   

Dependencies

1. COMPAS
2. COMPAS Fab - Fabrication Library for Robots
3. COMPAS Eve - Communication
4. Vuforia
5. ROS#

Installing Basic Requirements

• Install Docker https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/

Note: Docker is a virtualization platform that lets you run linux on windows. You need linux to run a ROS server. ROS ias a communication protocol that allows you to communicate with the robots.

Important! Make sure that you enable virtualization support in your BIOS. If you have a Mac (even if it is running Windows), scroll down to the end of this page to enable CPU virtualization. Go to the end of this guide for information on how to enable it.

When Docker asks you whether to use WSL 2, use it:

Allow Docker through the firewall when it asks:

Note: Docker works in the following way: when containers are UP, the operating system within the container is running. When the container has exited, it means that the operating system has shut off.

Run a test ROS image on Docker

• Use this guide for more information on ROS and docker https://gramaziokohler.github.io/compas_fab/0.11.0/backends/ros.html

• Open Docker.

• To try a minimally functional ROS image, open the command line, and run:

docker run -p 9090:9090 -t gramaziokohler/ros-base roslaunch rosbridge_server rosbridge_websocket.launch

• If the command executes, you are running Docker and ROS successfully, specifically if it states [-] [INFO] [1707004071.416390]: Rosbridge WebSocket server started at ws://0.0.0.0:9090 at the end or similar:

  

Compose and run the UR3 Robot Image on Docker

This will allow you to communicate with the robot.

• Open visual studio. Go to File - Open Folder. Load the github folder:

  

• Install Docker plugin for Visual Studio:

  

• Navigate to the .yml file, right click and click compose up:

  

This should get the correct docker image running, which would allow the communication between grasshopper/rhino with the UR3 robot.

Troubleshooting

• Be sure to update compas. In order to do that, open the anaconda prompt, and write:

  conda update compas
  python -m compas_rhino.install -v 7.0
  

• If you get more errors, particularly if you are a mac or windows running on a mac, it likely means that Rhino is not seeing your Python dependencies. Open Rhino, type in the EditPythonScript command, and add the github folder.

  

Virtualization

• If you receive the Docker Desktop - Unexepcted WSL Error, or the Hypervisor error you need to enable virtualization on your computer.

  

• Personal Computer users, user the following links to enable it in your BIOS:

  • https://docs.docker.com/desktop/troubleshoot/topics/#virtualization

  • https://www.virtualmetric.com/blog/how-to-enable-hardware-virtualization

• Mac or Apple computers, enable virualization in the following way. See here for the guide https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/120361/how-to-turn-on-hardware-virtualization-on-late-2013-macbook-pro-for-windows-8-1:

• Install the rEFInd boot manager for mac: https://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/