fsipleiria-ros

Introduction

This is the ROS software for the driverless formula car of the FSIPLeiria team.

Functional overview

The custom Python libraries provide a way to communicate with the car.
The libraries communicate with ROS, that communicate with the electronic units via CAN bus.
The most recent frame of each ID is stored on a cache server (RAM memory) (Redis Server).

Requirements

Hardware

• A 32 or 64-bit computer.

Software

• Operating system: Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal)
• ROS Noetic Ninjemys
• Redis Server

Setup

• Install Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal) on the machine (Either Desktop or Core version. Core is CLI, but has better performance. Can't use ROS 2D/3D visualization). The process is very straightforward and is like installing any other OS.
• Install ROS Noetic Ninjemys. Process described here: http://wiki.ros.org/noetic/Installation/Ubuntu.
• Add the line source $FSIPL_ROS_DIR/fsipleiria/devel/setup.sh to the end of the ~/.bashrc file, being $FSIPL_ROS_DIR the directory of this root folder.

Get up and running

• Before starting, set the environment variables REDIS_HOST, REDIS_PORT and REDIS_DB on your OS.
• Open a terminal and type the command roscore. This starts the ROS core framework.
• Open a new terminal and type catkin_make inside the "fsipleiria" directory.
• Start the controls package by running roslaunch controls controls.launch.

But how do I control the car?

• Make sure ROS is running by following the instructions on "Get up and running".
• For now, place your code inside the Formula folder. Otherwise Python won't know where our wonderful modules are.
• Just start coding and use the modules like shown in example.py. Feel free to explore the modules for better understanding.