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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.

Wiki: bluerov/Tutorials/Tether Network Setup (last edited 2016-02-11 08:30:45 by JoshVillbrandt)