Setup

When received RIA E100 its sensor’s USB cables might be detached during shipment. Based on indication mentioned in Fig 2. overview cables and peripherals need to be fixed in their respective ports. Apart from this RPlidar must be mounted as shown in following picture

../_images/sensor-setup.png ../_images/sensor-setup2.png

Notice the direction of arrow which indicates rplidar orientation and make sure cable is backward as shown in picture. Set of screws will be provided with tools in the package. Use them to fix the sensor . It is quite easy to explore internal components of RIA E100 by just removing top two plates. You might need tools which are available within package to open. 4 screws at top plate and 8 screws at downplay are fitted. Always make sure they are fixed tightly. Several holes with screwing threads are provided at top and second plate for user extension of platform by adding sensors. These are useful to fit those properly.

Working with RIA E100

This section instructs on how to configure robot before controlling it and how to use demos by setting from host PC. By the end of this tutorials you will be able to control robot and use demos that has been provided.

Prerequisites & setup

Before controlling robot few things need to setup. Follow these steps inorder to get things ready

  • Turn ON robot
  • When RIA E100 shipped battery might by not fully charged. It is recommended to charge the robot before starting to use it.
  • Make sure joystick controller has been loaded with batteries.
  • Connect RGBD and RPLIDAR at USB’s of rear panel of robot where you can notice with its indication named “RGBD” and “RPLIDAR” as shown in Fig 2.
  • Connect WIFI USB module to one of right side to rear panel’s USB port .
  • Note: you might also need to fix RPLIDAR with help of screws that has been provided within package
  • Now connect mouse and keyboard with help of usb hub that need to connect to one of USB port and connect display to HDMI or VGA port at rear panel of robot.
  • Turn on Main power switch and then turn on CPU power switch. You can now notice response in display with “GaiTech” logo.
  • Once you turn on the robot connect to local wifi’s network inorder to configure ROS_NETWORK

Installation

Note: Following steps are based on UBUNTU 16.04 with ROS-kinetic

This step assumes that your PC is running with Ubuntu 16 and configured with ROS KINETIC and all required libraries

  • Creating Work Space and cloning RIA E100 package
mkdir –p ~/catkin_ws/src
cd ~/catkin_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/gaitech-robotics/RIA-E100.git
cd ~/catkin_ws && catkin_make

Network Configuration

  • Configure ROS network keeping RIA-E100 as MASTER
  • Open bashrc in host PC and add these lines at the end
  • In a terminal
$ sudo gedit ~/.bashrc

you will get a file change these lines

export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://ROBOT_IP_ADDRESS:11311
export ROS_HOSTNAME=PC_IP_ADDRESS

in “PC_IP_ADDRESS” replace it with your PC IP address

Note: RIA E100 and host PC should be connected or to be in same network