ROS (Kinetic) package for Firebird V

Note1: The steps below are for ROS Kinetic installed on Ubuntu Xenial (16.xx). To install ROS Kinetic follow this.

Due credits to https://github.com/badrobot15/firebird_ros for the inspiration and base codes.

1. Install the Arduino IDE

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install arduino arduino-core

2. Give Administrator privileges to the current user for the Arduino Permission Checker

sudo usermod -a -G dialout your_user_here

3. Open and check the Arduino IDE

arduino

3a. Setup the Arduino IDE for Firebird V

1. Open the Arduino IDE and go to Tools->Boards. You will see a board for AtMega 2560. However, this board is set at F_CPU (cpu frequency) of 16MHz but the frequency of mega chip on Firebird robot is set to 14.7456MHz. Thus we need to create a new board configuration for the required frequency, in order to compile arduino sketches for Firebird V robot.
2. The new board configuration is required to be appended to boards.text file which can be found by following the steps below:
   1. Select an Arduino AVR Boards board from the Tools > Board menu.
   2. File > Examples > EEPROM > eeprom_clear
   3. Sketch > Show Sketch Folder
   4. Move up 4 folder levels and you will reach the location of boards.txt for the active version of Arduino AVR Boards.
3. Open the boards.txt file using your favourite text editor and append this to the file. Save it then.:

firebird.name=Firebird V Mega 2560 Robot

firebird.vid.0=0x2341
firebird.pid.0=0x0010
firebird.vid.1=0x2341
firebird.pid.1=0x0042
firebird.vid.2=0x2A03
firebird.pid.2=0x0010
firebird.vid.3=0x2A03
firebird.pid.3=0x0042
firebird.vid.4=0x2341
firebird.pid.4=0x0210
firebird.vid.5=0x2341
firebird.pid.5=0x0242

firebird.upload.tool=avrdude
firebird.upload.maximum_data_size=8192

firebird.bootloader.tool=avrdude
firebird.bootloader.low_fuses=0xFF
firebird.bootloader.unlock_bits=0x3F
firebird.bootloader.lock_bits=0x0F

firebird.build.f_cpu=14745600L

firebird.build.core=arduino
firebird.build.variant=mega
# default board may be overridden by the cpu menu
firebird.build.board=AVR_MEGA2560

## Arduino/Genuino Mega w/ ATmega2560
## -------------------------
firebird.menu.cpu.atmega2560=ATmega2560 (Mega 2560)

firebird.menu.cpu.atmega2560.upload.protocol=wiring
firebird.menu.cpu.atmega2560.upload.maximum_size=253952
firebird.menu.cpu.atmega2560.upload.speed=115200

firebird.menu.cpu.atmega2560.bootloader.high_fuses=0xD8
firebird.menu.cpu.atmega2560.bootloader.extended_fuses=0xFD
firebird.menu.cpu.atmega2560.bootloader.file=stk500v2/stk500boot_v2_mega2560.hex

firebird.menu.cpu.atmega2560.build.mcu=atmega2560
firebird.menu.cpu.atmega2560.build.board=AVR_MEGA2560

4. That's it! Close the IDE and open it again. You will be able to select your new board with name as Firebird V Mega 2560 Robot. You will be able to see the same as shown below:

3b. Custom Arduino Libraries for Firebird V

1. Put the folder FirebirdV/* found here into your ~/sketchbook/libraries/ AND ~/Downloads/arduino-xxxfolder (for safe side copy into both the folders). Close the IDE and open it again to see the examples under FirebirdV.

4. Install ROSSerial for Kinetic

sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-rosserial-arduino
sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-rosserial

5. Git clone this repository into your catkin workspace folder

cd ~/Downloads/
git clone https://github.com/tushar-semwal/firebirdv-ros-package.git
cd firebirdv-ros-package
cp -r firebird_v/ ~/<catkin_ws>/src/
cd ~/<catkin_ws>
source devel/setup.bash

6. Install the ros_lib library

1. Go to the arduino sketchbook/libraries folder cd ~/sketchbook/libraries
2. If not found, create one using mkdir ~/sketchbook/libraries and execute cd ~/sketchbook/libraries
3. Execute this command inside the sketchbook/libraries folder: rosrun rosserial_arduino make_libraries.py .
4. Note there is a DOT (.) after make_library.py in the above command.
5. Close and reopen the Arduino IDE and check the Files->Examples->ros_lib. If you can see it, congrats you have installed both ros_lib and FirebirdV libraries together. Note2: If you want to edit Arduino files in Windows, then you can just copy the ros_lib folder from the Ubuntu to the C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\hardware\arduino\avr\ or <INSTALLED_FOLDER>\Arduino\hardware\arduino\avr\ in your Windows OS.

6a. Configure X_Bee

Since we are using XBee for communication between the PC and FIrebird robot, make sure to follow this tutorial.

7. Download hex file into the Firebird V

1. Open Arduino IDE and open the Examples->firebird_v->ROS_FBV example file. You can also get the .ino file from here.
2. Click on Sketch->Export compile binary. May ask you to save at some location. Please do the same.
3. Click Sketch->Show sketch folder.
4. Burn the ROS_FB.ino.mega.hex file into your Firebird V robot using avrdude or any other tool.

8. Launch the ROS script file at the Ubuntu side

roslaunch firebird_v firebird_v.launch

A video of robot behavior is shown below:

You should expect your robot to do following things sequentially:

1. Buzzer on for 4 seconds.
2. Buzzer off for 4 seconds.
3. Bargraph LED displaying values from 1 to 255.
4. Bargraph LED set to 0 (all leds off).
5. LCD screen displaying "Hello".
6. LCD screen finally displays "Done".

That's it done.

TODOs

1. cmd_vel topic and publish