pheeno_arduino

Instead of locating all the files for the Arduino/Teensy within the pheeno_ros package, I have created a separate repository containing all the Arduino code. This repository is strongly suggested to be used with PlatformIO; however, it can be used with original Arduino client.

Installation

To install, just clone this directory into your home (~/) directory. This code works on both ROS Indigo and ROS Kinetic.

$ git clone https://github.com/acslaboratory/pheeno_arduino.git

Setup

Creating ros_lib files.

For ROS to work with arduino (and other) microcontrollers, libraries were created to interface a computer with a microcontroller thorugh serial connection. These libraries must be installed to use the pheeno_arduino files. To install these libraries, ROS Indigo or Kinetic must be installed and their respective ROS repositories accessable. Then install the relavent packages depending on your ROS version:

ROS Indigo

$ sudo apt-get install \
  ros-indigo-rosserial ros-indigo-rosserial-client \
  ros-indigo-rosserial-python ros-indigo-rosserial-arduino

ROS Kinetic

$ sudo apt-get install \
  ros-kinetic-rosserial ros-kinetic-rosserial-client \
  ros-kinetic-rosserial-python ros-kinetic-rosserial-arduino

Once installed, source the ROS setup.bash file to access the newly installed packages.

$ source /opt/ros/indigo/setup.bash   # For ROS Indigo
$ source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.bash  # For ROS Kinetic

Finally, cd into the lib/ folder of this respository, and run the following command to generate the ros_lib files required for using ROS with a microcontroller.

$ cd lib/
$ rosrun rosserial_arduino make_libraries.py .

Copying lib Files to Project Folder/s

Once the ros_lib files are generated, use the file_setup.py file that copies the lib/ folder into all PlatformIO project directory in the folder OR to a specific PlatformIO project directory. For example, in the first case the code would be:

$ python file_setup.py --all

or

$ python file_setup.py -a

To copy the files to a specific folder (the ros directory would be used as an example), you would do this:

$ python file_setup.py --file ros

or

$ python file_setup.py -f ros

Running PlatformIO with the Code

Begin by changing directory (cd) into the code you want to upload into the microcontroller and initialize PlatformIO. The example will use the ros project folder.

$ cd ros/
$ platformio init --board teensy31

NOTE: The --board option can be changed to the one that you are using. It should be noted, however, that the Pheeno uses a Teensy 3.2 whose PlatformIO option is specified by --board teensy31.

Finally, run (compile) and upload the code:

$ platformio run --target upload