1

UR3 passwords

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Robot serial number:20225300304

Passwords:

  • safety: 0000


Network IP Addresses

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IP



How to setup Gitea SSH Connection

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Follow the following Tutorial:

https://www.techaddressed.com/tutorials/add-verify-ssh-keys-gitea/



Install micro-ROS on ESP32

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Update 17.03.2023: Added instructions for dealing with ESP32-S2 hardware.


This guide should enable you to install ROS 2 Humble on a fresh Ubuntu installation and compile micro-ROS for ESP32 using automated scripts. Additionally, I added the section for running a docker container, so the guide should work on almost any Linux based system which has docker installed.


Section Part II is added, that includes instructions for compiling micro-ROS for ESP32-S2 based devices. The problem here is, that the standard micro-ROS distribution mentioned in the official tutorial does not ship with a current espressif-idf that supports ESP32-S2 boards. It seems like you need an esp-idf above version 4.4.


Prerequisites


  • Docker install on a recent Linux distribution, or


  • Ubuntu 22.04


Part I – Steps for old ESP32



We will use the FreeRTOS implementation for ESP32. Steps will lead to automatic compilation of provided “app” for the ESP32 and connect it to the ROS humble environment.


Step 1 – Only if using docker is intended


docker run -it --net=host -v /dev:/dev --privileged ros:humble


Step 2: Download micro-ROS and install dependencies


# Source the ROS 2 installation
source /opt/ros/$ROS_DISTRO/setup.bash
# Create a workspace and download the micro-ROS tools
mkdir microros_ws
cd microros_ws
git clone -b $ROS_DISTRO https://github.com/micro-ROS/micro_ros_setup.git src/micro_ros_setup
# Update dependencies using rosdep
sudo apt update && rosdep update
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -y
# Install pip
sudo apt-get install python3-pip
# Build micro-ROS tools and source them
colcon build
source install/local_setup.bash


Step 3: Create new firmware workspace – this time for platform esp32


Pay attention to use platform “esp32”


# Create step
ros2 run micro_ros_setup create_firmware_ws.sh freertos esp32


Step 4: Configure the firmware to include the application


# Configure step with ping_pong app and serial transport
ros2 run micro_ros_setup configure_firmware.sh ping_pong --transport serial


Step 5: Build the firmware


# Build step
ros2 run micro_ros_setup build_firmware.sh


Step 6: Flash the firmware


Connect esp32 via USB cable or appropriate interface. Most likely all the esp32 dev-boards offer USB connection and will be recognized as ttyUSB0 (USB serial device). In this step, the flash program will find the right port for you automatically.


Caveat ahead: If you are not running the process as root user (which is the recommended approach anyways), you must make sure that you have write permissions on the /dev/ttyUSB0 device. That can be established like follows:


sudo chown $USER /dev/ttyUSB0


Depending on your configuration, it is possible that you need to adapt above command. By running the flash step you will most likely see which device you need to use when the process exits with an error 🙂


# Flash step
ros2 run micro_ros_setup flash_firmware.sh


Step 7: Connect to the device and test the firmware


To make sure everything is working, disconnect the device after the flashing process is done or just reset it via the enable button (EN).


# Download micro-ROS-Agent packages
ros2 run micro_ros_setup create_agent_ws.sh



# Build step
ros2 run micro_ros_setup build_agent.sh
source install/local_setup.bash



# Run a micro-ROS agent
ros2 run micro_ros_agent micro_ros_agent serial --dev [device]


Replace [device] with your serial connection. Again, remember to choose the /dev/ttyUSB* device selected in the flash step. To avoid searching for the correct serial port in the future, you can also find out the discrete device identifier by having a look at this command’s output: 


ls /dev/serial/by-id/*


Step 8: Testing the micro-ROS app


At this point, the micro-ROS app is built and flashed and the board is connected to a micro-ROS agent. We now want to check that everything is working.


Open a new command line. We are going to listen to the ping topic with ROS 2 to check whether the micro-ROS Ping Pong node is correctly publishing the expected pings:


source /opt/ros/$ROS_DISTRO/setup.bash
# Subscribe to micro-ROS ping topic
ros2 topic echo /microROS/ping


You should see the topic messages published by the Ping Pong node every 5 seconds:


user@user:~$ ros2 topic echo /microROS/ping
stamp:
  sec: 20
  nanosec: 867000000
frame_id: '1344887256_1085377743'
---
stamp:
  sec: 25
  nanosec: 942000000
frame_id: '730417256_1085377743'
---


At this point, we know that our micro-ROS app is publishing pings. Let’s check if it also answers to someone else’s pings. If this works, it’ll publish a pong.


So, first of all, let’s subscribe with ROS 2 to the pong topic from a new shell (notice that initially we don’t expect to receive any pong, since none has been sent yet):


source /opt/ros/$ROS_DISTRO/setup.bash
# Subscribe to micro-ROS pong topic
ros2 topic echo /microROS/pong


And now, let’s publish a fake_ping with ROS 2 from yet another command line:


source /opt/ros/$ROS_DISTRO/setup.bash
# Send a fake ping
ros2 topic pub --once /microROS/ping std_msgs/msg/Header '{frame_id: "fake_ping"}'


Now, we should see this fake_ping in the ping subscriber console, along with the board’s pings:


user@user:~$ ros2 topic echo /microROS/ping
stamp:
  sec: 0
  nanosec: 0
frame_id: fake_ping
---
stamp:
  sec: 305
  nanosec: 973000000
frame_id: '451230256_1085377743'
---
stamp:
  sec: 310
  nanosec: 957000000
frame_id: '2084670932_1085377743'
---


Also, we expect that, because of having received the fake_ping, the micro-ROS pong publisher will answer with a pong. As a consequence, in the pong subscriber console, we should see the board’s answer to our fake_ping:


user@user:~$ ros2 topic echo /microROS/pong
stamp:
  sec: 0
  nanosec: 0
frame_id: fake_ping
--


Source: https://micro.ros.org/docs/tutorials/core/first_application_rtos/freertos/


PART II – Steps for newer ESP32-S2


In this case, I would advise anybody to use a docker container for the build process, as there is a bunch of dependencies installed in the process that might interfere with your currently running setup.


Step 1


Make a new project directory and cd into it.


cd ~
mkdir microros
cd microros


Step 2


Run a docker container that already includes needed dependencies, for instance a current version of esp-idf.


docker run -it --rm --name micro_ros --volume="/etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro" -v  $(pwd):/micro_ros -v  /dev:/dev --privileged --workdir /micro_ros microros/esp-idf-microros:latest /bin/bash


Step 3


Setup your container:


Source the micro-ROS component for the esp32 platform.


git clone https://github.com/micro-ROS/micro_ros_espidf_component.git
pip3 install catkin_pkg lark-parser empy colcon-common-extensions


Step 4


Select an example project and configure it for esp32-s2. As you can see, it should also be possible to configure the firmware for esp32-s3 and -c3 models. But I have not tested that yet.


cd examples/int32_publisher
# Set target board [esp32|esp32s2|esp32s3|esp32c3]
idf.py set-target esp32s2


Step 5


Use menuconfig to insert the WiFi Credentials and specific settings.


idf.py menuconfig
# Set your micro-ROS configuration and WiFi credentials under micro-ROS Settings


Step 6


Build your micro-ROS application and flash it to your esp32-s2 device. Additionally, start a monitoring process via serial console to see if there are any errors with the device. You will probably see some errors after connecting to the network, as the corresponding micro-ROS agent is not running on the computer yet.


idf.py build
idf.py flash
idf.py monitor


Step 7


Start a micro-ROS agent container to connect to your newly set-up esp node.


# UDPv4 micro-ROS Agent
docker run -it --rm --net=host microros/micro-ros-agent:humble udp4 --port 8888 -v6


Now you should see something similar to this:


Screenshot showing micro-ROS agent on the left and monitor process connected on the right.


In the end, this gives you the tools needed to compile the firmware for a ESP32-S2 based device. After exiting the build-container, the generated files are still available under provided project directory on your computer.


Source: https://github.com/micro-ROS/micro_ros_espidf_component



How to setup ROS2 in PyCharm

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Basic Usage of ROS2 with PyCharm

To access code completion and syntax error handling (debugging doesn’t work in PyCharm directly) in PyCharm for ROS2 the paths have to be linked in your project structure. To do so the following steps have to be performed:

Go to Settings -> Project: <Your-Project> -> Project Structure and Click on Add Content Root.
Now add the two directories: /opt/ros/<your-ros-distro>/lib/<python-version>/site-packages and /opt/ros/<your-ros-distro>/local/lib/<python-version>/dist-packages and set them to Resources

Now the code completion and syntax error handling works for ROS2.

Custom Messages & Custom Packages

To resolve import errors and add code completion in PyCharm for ROS2 projects you have to further set some directories as source roots.

First for custom messages (now called interfaces) build your project once with colcon build. Then go to install -> <name-of-msg-package> -> local -> lib -> <python-version> -> dist-packages and mark this folder as Source with the right click drop down menue. 

For custom packages you go to install -> <name-of-ros2-package> -> lib -> <python-version> -> site-packages and mark this as Source with the right click drop down menue.

Don’t forget the build your project with colcon build if you change your custom packages/modules so the code is updated in the install directory.

Custom Packages and setup.py

To use custom packages in your ROS2 nodes you need to link them in your setup.py file of your ROS2 package. To do so all packages need to have a __init__.py file depending on your package this file is in general empty. Then you open the setup.py file and add all your packages to the list “packages”. The list should look like this: 

packages = [package_name, package_name + ‘/Your_Package’, package_name+’/Your_2nd_Package’],

Use colcon build to update your install directory.



Zoll / Imports / Exports

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FĂĽr Exporte u. Importe aus dem Nicht-EU Ausland

  • Zollvorschriften: https://mydhl.express.dhl/at/de/help-and-support/customs-clearance-advice/customs-regulatory-updates.html
  • HAM. Code check: https://hs.e-to-china.com/

Importe / Exporte ĂĽber die DHL

Hier sollen alle Daten vorab auf MyDHL+online eingetragen werden.

Hilfe gibte es hier

  • https://dhl-news.com/624-82NYR-FTBW2X-4YH5EJ-1/c.aspx

Ansprechperson MUL

Finanzbuchhaltung: Nadja Schulhofer (nadja.schulhofer@unileoben.ac.at).



Vacations and Work from Home

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General Workflows and Agreements

Find below some general descriptions of workflows and agreements for working at our chair.

For any further question, you can always ask the whole CPS team.

Vacation Application Process

Please follow the instructions below, when you apply for any vacation days.  

  1. Request my permission via email
    • Please always send me an email first, where you ask for my ok for your vacation plan. Otherwise, I will ignore any notifications from the SAP system.
    • Add Regina cc to the email
  2. Apply for vacations in the online SAP portal (https://ess.unileoben.ac.at/)
    • I will receive an automatic email notification and will approve your application.
    • Without my approval, your application is not granted.
  3. Add your vacation days to our “CPS Events” Calendar
    • All of you have write access to add your vacation days.  

Working from at Home

According to your work contract, you have to come to the office for work.

Exceptions based on eventually valid covid regulations will be communicated via emails from the president of the university.



How to Use the university Email, IMAP /SMTP Settings

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University Email Instructions

  • You got an email or letter with your university Email, a P-Number (e.g., mine is p2196256) and a pin-code or password.
  • Your email will be: firstname.lastname@unileoben.ac.at

 

Two Passwords

  1. MUOnline: https://online.unileoben.ac.at
  2. NMAIL / NOTES: https://nmail.unileoben.ac.at/
    This password is needed to setup your mail client!

Setup the Mail Client

Few important notes:

  • Incoming IMAP Settings: Follow the instructions for employees. No VPN client is needed for receiving mails from outside the university network.
  • Outgoing SMTP Settings: If you follow the instructions for employees, you can only send emails when connected to the university network. You will need to setup and run a VPN Client to send mails from outside the university network. Find the download links and instructions here.
  • Incoming Setup (IMAP):
    • User: p-number
    • Password: Your NMAIL / NOTES pw that is used to login at https://nmail.unileoben.ac.at/
    • Host: nmail.unileoben.ac.at
    • SSL, Port 993
  • Outgoing Setup (SMTP):
      • User: p-number
      • Password: Your MUOnline pw that is used to login at https://online.unileoben.ac.at/
      • Host: mgate3.unileoben.ac.at
      • pasword-only, StartTLS-encryption, Port 587

Nextcloud Mail-Client Setup

You can also setup your mail client in our nextcloud (https://cloud.cps.unileoben.ac.at).

Note that with this online client, you can always send mail, even when being not connected to the university network.

On the right, an example configuration is shown.



How To fix the Robot Hand (Overheat Error)

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Signs of an Overheat Error

Two signs occur when the overheating error is present:

1) Only the red lamp on top of the robot hand is light up continuously.
2) The ROS Terminal (running the roslaunch rh8d start_rh8d.launch programm) displays “Overheat Error”. In the picture below the error message for servo #38 is displayed.

Needed Resources

  1.  Download the TSBAdvanced Loader binary from github.
  2.  Download the RH8D Fix folder (so far we have only the fixes for Servo #33, #35 and #38, if you need a different one please talk to Prof. Rückert).

How the fix works

  1. Connect the robot hand via the micro USB connector on the side of the hand to a Windows computer.
  2. Plug in the power supply of the robot hand.
  3. Open a Terminal on the Windows computer.
  4. Move to the directory were you unziped the “RH8D Fix.zip” files.
  5. Check the COM connection to the robot hand in the devices manager (i.e. COM4).
  6. Now enter the bridge mode with the terminal command : “tsbloader_adv.exe -port=[the Virtual Serial port number/id you determined in point 1] -seederos=bron” (replace the [the Virtual Serial port number/id you determined in point 1] with i.e. COM4.
  7.  Depending on the servo motor, the corresponding pwd must now be used. Servo #31 = A; Servo #32 = B; … Servo #38 = H.
  8. To reset the faulty temperature sensor of the corresponding servo motor use the following command: “tsbloader_adv.exe -port=[YOUR COMM PORT] -prewait=2000 -pwd=[SERVO-PWD] -eop=ewv -efile=[RESET FILE FOR THE SERVO] -baud=33333”
  9. If there are more than one errors, fix only one at a time!
  10.  After completion use the command: “tsbloader_adv.exe -port=[the Virtual Serial port number/id you determined in point 1] -seederos=broff” to leave the bridge mode.
  11. Afterwards reboot the hand (replug the power supply and disconnect the micro USB cable). After booting all three lamps should light again. Otherwise contact the support of seed robotics via email: support@seedrobotics.com

Sources



How to install Ubuntu in a VM on MacOS with M1 Chip

|

Install a Virtual Machine that supports Mac M1 Architectures

Well, the options are limited.

  • I went for UTM.

Install ubuntu server 20.04

 

Coding Environment

  • sudo apt-get install openjdk-17-jre-headless (or something like that)
  • PyCharm from JetBrains.
  • CoppeliaSim.
  • GitHubDesktop.
  • Terminator.
  • HTop.