Bulldog

Bulldog(professional Robot) is a robust and versatile middle size plazfrom designed for outdoor operations.All-terrain,all-weather for wheel skid-steer,the robot can climb stairs,slope,and maneuver directly toa point of interest on rough road outside.The robot can be teleoperated,follow the leader or use GPS waypoint navigation.

Install workspace

This robot is install Ubuntu 14.04 in its system.Research and development is base on ROS(Robot Operating System)Indigo.So it's better to install Ubuntu 14.04 ROS Indigo in your workstation. Install ROS please reference:http://wiki.ros.org/indigo/Installation/Ubuntu. Install dependence packge such as robot_localization please reference:http://wiki.ros.org/robot_localization lms1xx:http://wiki.ros.org/LMS1xx. Setup catkin workspace please reference:http://wiki.ros.org/catkin/Tutorials/create_a_workspace. Get bulldog packge https://github.com/wzy0426/bulldog.git to your catkin workspace.

1. Set ROS_MASTER_URI and ROS_IP in .bashrc.sh:

source /opt/ros/indigo/setup.bash
source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash
export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://192.168.1.30:11311
export ROS_IP=192.168.1.65

2. Add a DNS in /etc/hosts,such as 192.168.1.30

ROS development

The MCU auto-start motor drive and IMU When the robot system start.Robot model OF URDF also have loding. Robot_localization and other programs start runing.The default startup file is bulldog_base.launch and teleop.launch，arduimu.launch.

1. ROS Topics

rostopic list

/bulldog_velocity_controller/odom
/clicked_point
/cmd_vel
/diagnostics
/diagnostics_agg
/diagnostics_toplevel_state
/e_stop
/imu/data
/imu/data_raw
/imu/mag
/imu_filter_node/parameter_descriptions
/imu_filter_node/parameter_updates
/initialpose
/joint_states
/joy_teleop/cmd_vel
/joy_teleop/joy
/move_base_simple/goal
/odometry/filtered
/platform_control/cmd_vel
/rosout
/rosout_agg
/set_pose
/tf
/tf_static
/twist_marker_server/cmd_vel
/twist_marker_server/feedback
/twist_marker_server/update
/twist_marker_server/update_full

2. Robot Model

roslaunch bulldog_description test_desplay.launch

3. Exercise Test

Open rqt and choose rqt--Plugins—Robot Tools—Robot Steering

4. Check IMU data

rqt--Plugins—Visulization—Plot

5. Check data of robot self diagnosis

rqt--Plugins—Robot Tools—Diagnostic Viewer