Pre-setup

This page is under construction.

Preliminaries

• Simulation: successful test of your own controller on ROS/Gazebo.

• Packages installed

  • Firefly OBC

    • asctec_mav_framework: framework for data aquisition and position control to be used with the highlevel (HL) processor of Ascending Technologies helicopters

    • MSF: Modular framework for multi sensor fusion based on an Extended Kalman Filter

    • Controller: in this tutorial, the gain-scheduling controller will be tested

  • Remote Computer

    • VRPN Client: connects to the Vicon server through the Virtual Reality Peripheral Network; provides position, orientation, velocity and angular velocity.

• VICON setup: see our Vicon page for more detail.

• Power on

  • Firefly's FCU (flight control unit) with an ASCTEC battery fully charged (5000 mAh, 11.1V)

  • Firefly's On-Board Computer (OBC)

Network

Remote monitoring and control the Firefly hexarotor UAV from a distance computer. In this tutorial, the desktop L5816-18 and the object firefly_blue are used.

IP address

The remote computer and the Firefly have to be connected to the same network (MRASL). You can check your IP address by typing ifconfig in a terminal.

• The firefly_blue IP is 192.168.1.12.
• For this tutorial assume that the remote computer IP is 192.168.1.4.

Remote monitoring and control of the Firefly from a distance computer

• Check the connectivity between the remote computer and the firefly_blue by running the following command in a remote computer terminal

  $ ping 192.168.1.12

• To log into the Firefly's OBC we use the following commands

  $ ssh asctec@192.168.1.12

  This command will open a ssh channel to the firefly_blue (default password is asctec).

• If you are using the desktop L5816-18, you can also running the permanent alias

  $ connect_firefly_blue

• We will use the firefly_blue as the ROS master, by setting the ROS_MASTER_URI and ROS_IP variables to the drone's IP. To change the variables we use the following commands in the remote computer terminal

  $ export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://192.168.1.12:11311
  $ export ROS_IP=192.168.1.4

  If you are using the desktop L5816-18, you can also running the permanent alias

  $ master_firefly_blue

ROS environment

Setting up the ROS environment: don't forget to run $ source devel/setup.bash in each terminal before continue with the following subsections. If you are using the the firefly_blue and the desktop L5816-18, you can also running the permanent alias $ gotien.

Firefly's OBC

• If you want to implement your own controller, you should list and kill all default nodes on OBC by running the following commands

   $ rosnode list
   $ rosnode kill /AsctecProc
   $ rosnode kill /AutoPilot

• Running /fcu, /mv_26805107 nodes (Asctec Framework HL interface) and /pose_sensor node (MSF, private name)

  $ roslaunch asc_hl_interface fcu.launch
  $ roslaunch msf_updates viconpos_sensor.launch

Remote Computer

• Running the /firefly_blue/vrpn_client node

  $ roslaunch ros_vrpn_client mrasl_vicon.launch

  This launch file is a copy of the original asl_vicon.launch, using for the firefly_blue object and the Vicon server IP 192.168.1.200

  <arg name="object_name" default="firefly_blue" />
  <node ns="$(arg object_name)" name="vrpn_client" type="ros_vrpn_client" pkg="ros_vrpn_client" output="screen">
      <param name="vrpn_server_ip" value="192.168.1.200" />

After running these launch files, the /pose_sensor node may show this message (OBC terminal): Pose measurement throttling is on, dropping messagesto be below 50.000000 Hz.