mir_driver

This repo contains a ROS driver and ROS configuration files (URDF description, Gazebo launch files, move_base config, bringup launch files, message and action descriptions) for the MiR 100 robot.

Package overview

mir_actions: Action definitions for the MiR robot
mir_description: URDF description of the MiR robot
mir_dwb_critics: Plugins for the dwb_local_planner used in Gazebo
mir_driver: A reverse ROS bridge for the MiR robot
mir_gazebo: Simulation specific launch and configuration files for the MiR robot
mir_msgs: Message definitions for the MiR robot
mir_navigation: move_base launch and configuration files

Installation

You can chose between binary and source install below. If you don't want to modify the source, the binary install is preferred (if mir_robot binary packages are available for your ROS distro). The instructions below use the ROS distro kinetic as an example; if you use a different distro (e.g. indigo), replace all occurrences of the string kinetic by your distro name in the instructions.

Preliminaries

If you haven't already installed ROS on your PC, you need to add the ROS apt repository. This step is necessary for either binary or source install.

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list'
wget http://packages.ros.org/ros.key -O - | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update -qq

Binary install

For a binary install, it suffices to run this command:

sudo apt install ros-kinetic-mir-robot

See the tables at the end of this README for a list of ROS distros for which binary packages are available.

Source install

For a source install, run the commands below instead of the command from the "binary install" section.

# create a catkin workspace
mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src
cd ~/catkin_ws/src/

# clone mir_robot into the catkin workspace
git clone -b kinetic https://github.com/dfki-ric/mir_robot.git

# use rosdep to install all dependencies (including ROS itself)
sudo apt-get update -qq
sudo apt-get install -qq -y python-rosdep
sudo rosdep init
rosdep update
rosdep install --from-paths ./ -i -y --rosdistro kinetic

# build all packages in the catkin workspace
source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.bash
catkin_init_workspace
cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin_make -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebugInfo

In case you encounter problems, please compare the commands above to the build step in .travis.yml; that should always have the most recent list of commands.

You should add the following line to the end of your ~/.bashrc, and then close and reopen all terminals:

source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash

Gazebo demo (existing map)

### gazebo:
roslaunch mir_gazebo mir_maze_world.launch
rosservice call /gazebo/unpause_physics   # or click the "start" button in the Gazebo GUI

### localization:
roslaunch mir_navigation amcl.launch initial_pose_x:=10.0 initial_pose_y:=10.0
# or alternatively: roslaunch mir_gazebo fake_localization.launch delta_x:=-10.0 delta_y:=-10.0

# navigation:
roslaunch mir_navigation start_planner.launch \
    map_file:=$(rospack find mir_gazebo)/maps/maze.yaml \
    virtual_walls_map_file:=$(rospack find mir_gazebo)/maps/maze_virtual_walls.yaml
rviz -d $(rospack find mir_navigation)/rviz/navigation.rviz

Now, you can use the "2D Nav Goal" tool in RViz to set a navigation goal for move_base.

(Click image to see video)

Gazebo demo (mapping)

### gazebo:
roslaunch mir_gazebo mir_maze_world.launch
rosservice call /gazebo/unpause_physics   # or click the "start" button in the Gazebo GUI

### mapping:
roslaunch mir_navigation hector_mapping.launch.xml

# navigation:
roslaunch mir_navigation move_base.xml with_virtual_walls:=false
rviz -d $(rospack find mir_navigation)/rviz/navigation.rviz

Running the driver on the real robot

Start up the robot

switch on MiR base

Connect to the MiR web interface

connect to MiR_R??? wifi (password "mirex4you"), for example from your Android phone/tablet
disable other network connections (mobile data / LAN / etc.)
open mir.com (192.168.12.20) in Chrome (!)
log in (admin/mir4you)

Synchronize system time

The internal robot PC's is not synchronized (for example via NTP), so it tends to get out of sync quickly (about 1 second per day!). This causes TF transforms timing out etc. and can be seen using tf_monitor (the "Max Delay" is about 3.3 seconds, but should be less than 0.1 seconds):

$ rosrun tf tf_monitor
Frames:
Frame: /back_laser_link published by unknown_publisher Average Delay: 3.22686 Max Delay: 3.34766
Frame: /base_footprint published by unknown_publisher Average Delay: 3.34273 Max Delay: 3.38062
Frame: /base_link published by unknown_publisher Average Delay: 3.22751 Max Delay: 3.34844
Frame: /front_laser_link published by unknown_publisher Average Delay: 3.22661 Max Delay: 3.34159
Frame: /imu_link published by unknown_publisher Average Delay: 3.22739 Max Delay: 3.34738
Frame: /odom_comb published by unknown_publisher Average Delay: 3.16493 Max Delay: 3.28667
[...]

All Broadcasters:
Node: unknown_publisher 418.344 Hz, Average Delay: 0.827575 Max Delay: 3.35237
Node: unknown_publisher(static) 465.362 Hz, Average Delay: 0 Max Delay: 0

To fix this: