 Please ask about problems and questions regarding this tutorial on answers.ros.org. Don't forget to include in your question the link to this page, the versions of your OS & ROS, and also add appropriate tags. |
Tether Network Setup
Description: Instructions to setup the tether between the ROV and the surface computer.Tutorial Level: INTERMEDIATE
Next Tutorial: Install BlueROV ROS Packages
When performing tele-operated tests and missions, it can be desirable to connect the workstation and ROV together using a direct Ethernet connection. Wifi connectivity obviously isn't an option through water and a direct Ethernet connection eliminates the need for a network switch between the two computers.
On the workstation machine, choose an Ethernet interface to dedicate to the ROV. We will use eth0. Modify the file /etc/network/interfaces by adding or replacing the following information for your chosen interface:
## ROV direct connection auto eth0 iface eth0 inet static address 10.0.0.10 netmask 255.255.255.0
On the ROV, edit the same file but use a different IP address:
## ROV direct connection auto eth0 iface eth0 inet static address 10.0.0.20 netmask 255.255.255.0
Reboot or restart the networking daemon for these settings to take effect. You should now be able to ping between the two machines:
# from the workstation to the ROV ping 10.0.0.20 # from the ROS to the workstation ping 10.0.0.10
You should also try pinging the remote hostname from each machine. Depending on your network configuration, you might find it necessary to explicitly set the hostname for the remote host in /etc/hosts on each machine.
To facilitate jumping between a local ROS master and a remote ROS master, try adding the following shell aliases to your ~/.bashrc file:
export ROS_HOSTNAME=$(hostname) alias use-rov="export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://bluerov:11311" alias use-local="export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://localhost:11311"
For more information, check out this guide network two Ubuntu machines together, the ROS Network Setup guide, and then ROS Multiple Machines Tutorial.
