BipedRobin

BipedRobin is a biped walking robot developed at the Institute for Robotics at Johannes Kepler University Linz.

Installation on the robot (wstool from source)

By checking out from our repositories, you can always stay up to date with the latest version. Use the following commands to check out the BipedRobin stacks:

1. Install Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

2. Install RTAI by installing RealTime suite

3. Install ROS software (ROS Fuerte with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS recommended) accoring to this link. Use ros-fuerte-ross-comm packages at the installation page (recommended)

4. Create a ros workspace for rosbuild (Tutorial)

5. Checkout repository as read only: (To checkout for commits use the google code username and password)

svn checkout https://robin-jku-linz-ros-pkg.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/biped_robin_viz
svn checkout https://robin-jku-linz-ros-pkg.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/biped_robin_apps
svn checkout https://robin-jku-linz-ros-pkg.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/biped_robin
svn checkout https://robin-jku-linz-ros-pkg.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/rtai_integration
svn checkout https://robin-jku-linz-ros-pkg.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/tools_robin

1. rosmake

Install on the base computer

It is recommended to install the visualization stack on a base computer (e.g. running ROS Groovy).

1. To connect the base computers ROS network to the robot add the IP and the host name to /etc/hosts and run

   echo "export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://hostname_of_robot:11311" >> ~/.bashrc
   source ~/.bashrc

2. Create a ros workspace (http://wiki.ros.org/ROS/Tutorials/InstallingandConfiguringROSEnvironment#Create_a_ROS_Workspace)

3. Checkout the repository

   cd ~/catkin_ws/src
   svn checkout https://robin-jku-linz-ros-pkg.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/biped_robin_viz
   svn checkout https://robin-jku-linz-ros-pkg.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/biped_robin
   cd ..
   catkin_make

   • To be able to commit changes to the repositories add the flag "--username robinJKU@gmail.com" to above commands. The password can be found at the config page of the Google Code website.

4. Run a demo on the robot, for example:

   ssh user@hostname_of_robot -X
   roslaunch biped_robot_teleop joystick_real.launch

5. Run (or any other launch file in the biped_robin_rviz_launchers package) to see the visualization
   

   roslaunch biped_robin_rviz_launchers demo.launch

Getting Started

Bringup the real robot

To start the BipedRobin robot power on the robot, reference the joints and type:

roslaunch biped_robin_bringup bipedRobinReal_all.launch

The robot is now ready to receive step commands. Proceed with starting nodes that supply steps like biped_robin_telop.

Bringup a faked robot

To start the BipedRobin in a simulation node type:

roslaunch biped_robin_bringup bipedRobinSimulated_all.launch

on the robot. The robot is now ready to receive step commands. Proceed with starting nodes that supply steps like biped_robin_telop.

Bringup Kinect

To start the Kinect mounted in the head of BipedRobin just type

roslaunch biped_robin_bringup kinect_minimal.launch

on the robot.

Bringup Visualisation

To run the visualization of BipedRobin just type

roslaunch biped_robin_rviz_launchers demo.launch

on the base station (this command will not run on the robot itself as the robot does not provide any graphical capabilities).

Teleoperation

To teleoperated BipedRobin by a PS3 joystick just type

roslaunch biped_robin_teleop joystick.launch

on the robot.

Keys 1-4 are used to switch between the different modis of the robot (idle, home position, walk, ...).

Keys L1 and R1 are used as dead man keys for the left and the right joystick. Push the left joystick forward to walk forward and the right joystick to the left to turn left. Simultanious use of both joysticks is possible.

Stack Overview

There are multiple stacks specific to the BipedRobin:

Advanced Usage

Will follow