NOVAOnboarding/README.md

NOVAOnboarding

Onboarding for UTD Nova Lab. Demo: https://youtu.be/Avia9JZHDv0

Procedure

Container Setup

• Used Ubuntu:jammy image with a container mounted to host volume dockerShare in my documents folder
  • Downloaded ros2 dependencies and source code and built (took a couple hours)
  • added .bashrc file to auto-source ros2 on container start.
• Exported this install container to a docker image named ros2SourceRunner
• Created a new docker network named main_to_chaser
• Created two new containers from the docker image ros2SourceRunner, both mounted to the same host volume dockerShare, both connected to network main_to_chaser
  • Both with x11 forwarding for use with xQuartz to forward the screen output to the main machine

Ros2 Package Setup

• Created my adipu_ws workspace in dockerShare, and ran ros2 pkg create adipu_turtlesim_controller --build-type ament_python -- dependencies rclpy
  • This created the package for all my nodes
  • Could then run colcon build in my workspace to build this package (had to downgrade setuptools)
• Created mouse_follow_node that sends commands to turtle1 based on mouse position on screen
  • Plus, can click on pop up window to pause control and right-click to clear canvas!
  • Added node to setup.py entrypoints
  • Based on proportional control, similar to chaser turtle.
    • dist. from imaginary goal is mouse position relative to center of screen
    • angle from imaginary goal is angle to mouse position from center of screen.
• Created initTurt_launch.py, which calls both the main turtlesim_node as well as mouse_follow_node and calls the spawn service when available
  • Didn't realize availability checking was built into the service call initially, spent a lot of time messing with TimerAction() lol
• Created chaser_node and chaser_flipper_node that make turtle 2 run toward or away from turtle 1 and flip the behavior of turtle 2, respectively
  • Tested these nodes with Bool message type initially
• Created adipu_msg package, added Flip message type
  • Flip is an empty message type, as chaser_node only needs to know when to flip. The rest is handled by the nodes themselves.
  • Learning how to make this package was a bit harder, as I had to use cmakelists and stuff.
• Switched message type to Flip() in chaser_node and chaser_flipper_node
• Created launch file chaseTurt_launch.py to launch chaser_node and chaser_flipper_node

Running it

• Ran initTurt_launch.py in container mainTurt
• Ran chaseTurt_launch.py in container chaserTurt

dockerShare
├── .bashrc (included in repo)
├── adipu_ws
│   ├── build
│   ├── install
│   ├── log
│   └── src
│       └── (files included in this repo @ adipu_ws/src/)
├── ros2_humble
│   └── (ros2 source install: build, install, log, src)
├── initTurt_launch.py (included in repo)
└── chaseTurt_launch.py (included in repo)