by RoboLab, ISIS and many other collaborators.
RoboComp is an open-source Robotics framework providing the tools to create and modify software components that communicate through public interfaces. Components may require, subscribe, implement or publish interfaces in a seamless way. Building new components is done using two domain specific languages, IDSL and CDSL. With IDSL you define an interface and with CDSL you specify how the component will communicate with the world. With this information, a code generator creates C++ and/or Python sources, based on CMake, that compile and execute flawlessly. When some of these features have to be changed, the component can be easily regenerated and all the user specific code is preserved thanks to a simple inheritance mechanism.
If you already have RoboComp installed, jump to tutorials! to start coding!
Coming soon...
Tested in Ubuntu 14.04, 14.10, 15.04, 15.10, 16.04 and 17.04
So if you have already a version of robocomp runing on your system then you will have to remove the package zeroc-ice35 and older version of robocomp, then follow the instructions below to install the new version. To remove the package zeroc-ice35 -
apt-get purge zeroc-ice35
If we do not do this, then it conflicts with the new installation. This removes all the configuration and data files too with the binaries. So we have to rebuild robocomp later on. In short after this we follow the steps as given below.
First we install nodejs and npm -
sudo apt-get install nodejs
sudo apt install npm
sudo apt-get install nodejs-legacy
Test: Run node -v. The version should be higher than v0.10.32.
We also update npm to latest just for being on a safer side:
npm install npm@latest -g
Test: Run npm -v. The version should be higher than 2.1.8.
Now we fix the npm permissions : follow this link to fix the npm permissions.
Now after setting up npm and node successfully we go forward and start with installing ice-3.6.3 - If you are a new user please install git first by -
sudo apt-get install git
First we install Ice for C++, Java, PHP, and all Ice services.
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv B6391CB2CFBA643D
sudo apt-add-repository "deb http://zeroc.com/download/Ice/3.7/ubuntu16.04 stable main"
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install zeroc-ice-all-runtime zeroc-ice-all-dev
Second, we install Ice for JS -
npm install -g slice2js
npm install -g ice
Third we install Ice for Python (install pip first if not already installed and also the bzlib libraries which are required while installing Ice)-
sudo apt install python-pip
sudo apt-get install libbz2-1.0 libbz2-dev libbz2-ocaml libbz2-ocaml-dev
pip install zeroc-ice
Now we comeback to installation of robocomp: Make sure you have installed the following packages from the Ubuntu repository:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install git-annex cmake g++ libgsl0-dev libopenscenegraph-dev cmake-qt-gui freeglut3-dev libboost-system-dev libboost-thread-dev qt4-dev-tools yakuake python-pyparsing python-numpy python-pyside pyside-tools libxt-dev pyqt4-dev-tools qt4-designer libboost-test-dev libboost-filesystem-dev libqt4-dev libqt4-opengl-dev
cd to your user (/home/your-linux-user) directory (you are probably in it already) and type:
git clone https://github.com/lovemehta/RoboComp-JS.git robocomp
Now we will create a symbolic link so RoboComp can find everything. You will have to enter your password:
sudo ln -s ~ /home/robocomp
(the ~ is in Alt-4)
Edit your ~/.bashrc file
gedit ~/.bashrc
Add these lines at the end: export ROBOCOMP=~/robocomp export PATH=$PATH:/opt/robocomp/bin export ICEROOT=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
make bash process the modified file by typing:
source ~/.bashrc
Done! Now let's compile and install the whole thing:
sudo [ -d /opt/robocomp ] && rm -r /opt/robocomp
cd robocomp
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
sudo make install
The RoboComp's core libraries and simulator should now be compiled and installed in /opt/robocomp.
Let's now tell Linux where to find RoboComp's libraries:
sudo nano /etc/ld.so.conf
and add the following line:
/opt/robocomp/lib/
save the file and type:
sudo ldconfig
Done! Now let's have some fun.
We will first fetch some meshes and textures used by the simulator (it will take a while):
cd ~/robocomp
git annex get .
Now let's run the simulator.
cd ~/robocomp/files/innermodel
rcis simpleworld.xml
Congratulations! RCIS should be up and running with a simple robot endowed with a laser and an RGBD camera, moving on a wooden floor. Don't forget to turn around the floor to see the robot from above.
The software of the robots using RoboComp is composed of different software components working together, communicating among them. What we just installed is just the core of RoboComp (the simulator, a component generator and some libraries). To have other features like joystick control we have to run additional software components available from other repositories, for example robocomp-robolab:
cd ~/robocomp/components
git clone https://github.com/robocomp/robocomp-robolab.git
The RoboLab's set of basic robotics components are now dowloaded. You can see them in ~/robocomp/components/robocomp-robolab/components
If you have a joystick around, connect it to the USB port and:
cd ~/robocomp/components/robocomp-robolab/components/joystickComp
cmake .
make
cd bin
sudo addgroup your-user dialout // To solve some permissions issues in Ubuntu
./startJoyStick.sh
Your joystick should be now running. It will make the robot advance and turn at your will. If the component does not start or the robot does not move stop joystickcomp with:
./forceStopJoyStickComp.sh
and check where the joystick device file has been created (e.g., /dev/input/js0). If it is not /dev/input/js0, edit ~/robocomp/components/robocomp-robolab/components/joystickComp/etc/config change it accordingly and restart. Note that you might want to save the config file to the component's home directory so it does not interfere with future github updates.
If you don't have a JoyStick install this component,
cd ~/robocomp/components/robocomp-robolab/components/keyboardrobotcontroller
cmake .
make
src/keyboardrobotcontroller.py --Ice.Config=etc/config
and use the arrow keys to navigate the robot, the space bar to stop it an 'q' to exit.
You can find more tutorials on RoboComp in tutorials!
Drop comments and ask questions in:
Please, report any bugs to pbustos@unex.es