Setting Up Your Kitbot

This MASLAB Wiki page will teach you to setup your Kitbot!

Step 1: Hardware Assembly

You may complete this in parallel with Step 2.

Assemble your Kitbot MDF parts according to the staff's direction. You will additionally be directed to laser-cut your robot's top plate.

Step 2: Software Setup

This section will instruct you to set up Kitbot's software. You may complete this in parallel with Step 1.

Step 2.1: Turn on & Access Your NUC

Before beginning, you will need to determine your username, which you can obtain from the following table. Pay close attention to the spelling of your hostname as some use hyphens and some do not.

Once you have your username, plug in & turn on your Intel NUC. Access "Poll Me Maybe?" at this link to determine the IP address of your NUC. Open your laptop's Linux VM and connect to the NUC via SSH using the following command.

$ ssh -X [username]@[ip-address]

Replace [username] with your team's username. Replace [ip-address] with the IP address you obtained from Poll Me Maybe.

You may be asked "Are you sure you want to continue connecting?" Answer yes.

Step 2.2: Clone the Kitware Repository

Kitware is the operating system for Kitbot and is based on ROS (Robot Operating System). Kitware's source code is openly available on GitHub. In order to run Kitbot, you must first clone (copy) this repository to your NUC.

Enter your team's ROS2 workspace directory. Replace 0 with your team's number.

$ cd ~/team-0

Create a directory named src.

$ mkdir src

Enter the src directory.

$ cd src

Clone the Kitware repository.

$ git clone https://github.com/MASLAB/kitware.git

Note

At some point, you may be instructed to "pull" changes from Git. This will happen if staff finds a bug in kitware. If this happens, simply enter the kitware directory and execute git pull.

Step 2.3: Clone the Kitware Interface Repository

Kitware is composed of two packages: the code itself and an "interface" packages, which contains information about the structure of the messages that your keyboard sends to your robot. In order to continue, you will need to install kitware_interface.

Ensure that you are in your ~/team-0/src directory. If you are not, enter this directory.

$ cd ~/team-0/src

Clone the Kitware Interface repository.

$ git clone https://github.com/MASLAB/kitware_interface.git

Step 2.4: Build the Operating System

You now must build the ROS-based operating system for your robot. You will do this with ColCon (Collective Construction), a software designed for building ROS packages.

Return to the ROS2 workspace. Replace 0 with your team's number.

$ cd ~/team-0

Now, build your ROS package using ColCon.

$ colcon build

Now, return to your home directory.

$ cd ~

Step 3: Electrical Integration

This section will instruct you to set up Kitbot's electricals.

Click here for Wiring Diagram

Step 4: Launching Kitbot

It is now time to launch the Kitbot!

Warning

Ensure that your Kitbot's wheels are not in contact with your workbench. Otherwise, Kitbot will drive off of your workbench and you will break your NUC.

First, enter your ROS2 workspace directory. Replace 0 with your team's number.

$ cd ~/team-0

Next, you will need to set up your shell environment.

$ source install/local_setup.bash

Finally, launch Kitbot.

$ ros2 launch kitware kitware_launch.py

You should see a small white box in the center of your screen. Using WASD, you should be able to control your robot's drive wheels.

Note

Please contact staff if you are not able to drive Kitbot.