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Mekabot M3 : open source realtime control system for the meka robots

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Mekabot M3 Installation instructions

This wiki describes the full installation of m3 software to control/simulate the Meka robot at CITEC.

Thanks a lot to Antoine Hoarau for making all of his work public and helping us to port it to our robot.

This installation supports 3 versions, depending on your needs :

  • Only the M3 python API for development
  • Real-time M3 (c++ and python) for development and simulation
  • Real-time M3 for Meka's real-time PC (same as above but with EtherCAT component)
OS Tested Status Notes
Ubuntu 12.04 x86 ? w ROS Hydro
Ubuntu 12.04 x64 ? w ROS Hydro
Ubuntu 13.10 x86 ? w ROS Indigo
Ubuntu 14.04 x64 ? w ROS Indigo/MoveIt!
KUbuntu 16.04LTS x64 ? w ROS Kinetic(shadow-fixed)/MoveIt!

Current version on the Meka : KUbuntu 16.04LTS on kernel 3.14.7, rtai4.1-test1

Prerequisites

All Information in this section apply to: meka-man meka-marbel meka-matter meka-gpu

Basics

  • install Ubuntu 16.04
  • enable autologin
  • disable kwallet subsystem
  • set up wifi connection

Recommended Packages

Add ROS Shadow-Fixed Repo. See: http://wiki.ros.org/ShadowRepository

sudo apt-get install

TODO: add final package list here

Note : if you only want the python interface, jump to the "install Mekabot" section.

The RTAI-patched kernel

See: https://github.com/semeyerz/m3installation/blob/master/rtai-kernel-build.md

You can also compile your own kernel have a look at this as well: https://github.com/ahoarau/mekabot/wiki/Meka-mob-%28RTPC%29-configuration

Installation

inux-headers-3.14.17-rtai-4.1_3.14.17-rtai-4.1-10.00.Custom_amd64.deb linux-image-3.14.17-rtai-4.1_3.14.17-rtai-4.1-10.00.Custom_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i --force-all $headers $image

Now boot on the new kernel using grub at startup. Please note the name of the kernel.

Note : you might have to either hold shift on startup or update the grub config to boot on the rtai patched kernel:

sudo nano /etc/defaults/grub

(Recommended) Configure your kernel boot options

sudo nano /etc/default/grub
# Then edit the following line: 
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
# To :
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash lapic=notscdeadline noapic acpi=off clocksource=tsc hpet=disable i915.i915_enable_rc6=0 i915.powersave=0 intel_idle.max_cstate=0 processor.max_cstate=0 idle=poll"

and maybe add this:
GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true

## Explanation
# lapic=notscdeadline : usefull for i5 and i7 processors, reduces latency by a factor of 10 on the meka-mob
# hpet=disable : rtai does not like hpet, so disable it to make sure it never uses it (it should not). Not mandatory as rtai is smart enough to not use it.
# i915.i915_enable_rc6=0 : disable deep sleep for processor, we want max power.
# intel_idle.max_cstate=0, processor.max_cstate=0 :  same as above
# i915.powersave=0 : disable the power management, i.e less interruptions.
# idle=poll : Poll forces a polling idle loop that can slightly improve the performance of waking up a idle CPU, but will use a lot of power and make the system run hot. Set CPU fan to maximum all the time (in bios). 

# Theses option will provide you ~300 nanosecond latencies (which is very low, so, very good).



# Then apply the update:
sudo update-grub
sudo reboot

RTAI 4.1.1 installation

Download

wget https://www.rtai.org/userfiles/downloads/RTAI/rtai-4.1.1.tar.bz2
tar xfvj rtai-4.1.1.tar.bz2

Installation

cd rtai-4.1.1/
make menuconfig
# Configure the Number of cpus you have, and uncheck oneshot timer
make
sudo make install

Notes: Rtai libraries, modules headers etc should be installed in /usr/realtime/, and that makes everyone's life easier.

Know issues : On 64-bit CPUs, if an error regarding -mpreferred-cache-boundary=3 shows up, edit line 57 in /usr/src/linux/arch/x86/Makefile (where linux is your rtai patched kernel) to set this parameter to 4:

sudo gedit  /usr/src/linux/arch/x86/Makefile
# 57: KBUILD_CFLAGS += $(call cc-option,-mno-sse -mpreferred-stack-boundary=4)

Part of the explanation: http://mail.rtai.org/pipermail/rtai/2013-December/026198.html

Know issues : on 12.04 32 bits machines, rtai fails to compile (some header is missing)

sudo apt-get install gcc-multilib g++-multilib libc6-dev
sudo ln -s /usr/include/i386-linux-gnu/gnu/stubs-32.h /usr/include/gnu/stubs-32.h

Post install

Update the ld library path to find rtai:

sudo -s
echo /usr/realtime/lib/ > /etc/ld.so.conf.d/rtai.conf
exit
sudo ldconfig

Install ROS

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) main' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list"

If on Ubuntu < 13.10

ROS_DISTRO=hydro

If on Ubuntu > 13.10

ROS_DISTRO=indigo

ROS + MoveIt! + ROS Control

wget http://packages.ros.org/ros.key -O - | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-desktop-full ros-$ROS_DISTRO-moveit-* ros-$ROS_DISTRO-ros-control ros-$ROS_DISTRO-ros-controllers python-rosinstall python-pip

You can check the ros_control implementation in the wiki.

sudo -E rosdep init
rosdep update

Openni (ROS Hydro Only)

sudo apt-get install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-openni*

Create the ROS-workspace

source /opt/ros/$ROS_DISTRO/setup.bash
## Create the ROS-workspace
mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src
cd ~/catkin_ws/src
catkin_init_workspace
cd ~/catkin_ws/
catkin_make

##Install Mekabot M3

Download

git clone https://github.com/CentralLabFacilities/mekabot.git ~/mekabot
cd ~/mekabot
git submodule init
git submodule update
git submodule foreach git checkout master

Installation

Holomni PCV for the mobile base

If on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS:

sudo -E add-apt-repository ppa:hoarau-robotics/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install holomni-pcv

If not :

cd ~/mekabot
cd holomni_pcv
mkdir build;cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
make -j$[$(nproc)+1]
sudo make install

Mekabot

cd ~/mekabot
mkdir build;cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
make -j$[$(nproc)+1]
sudo make install

Note :

  • Compiling in Release makes the M3 system twice as fast (Essentially due to KDL).
  • If you are running on real hardware, install EtherCAT first, then compile Mekabot with -DETHERCAT=1 and in release as above.

Update your bashrc

touch ~/.m3rc
echo '
##################################################################
## Meka

## The M3 Software environnement setup
source /usr/local/share/setup.bash

## Meka config files location
export M3_ROBOT=~/mekabot/m3bie/real_meka

## Virtual Config onverlay
export M3_ROBOT=$M3_ROBOT:~/mekabot/m3bie/virtual_meka

## Some python hacks
export MALLOC_CHECK_=0


##################################################################
## ROS

#export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://meka-moch:11311 # If on real Meka, roscore is launched from meka-moch
#export ROS_IP=192.168.20.117 # Fix here your IP to avoid conflicts on Meka
source /opt/ros/indigo/setup.bash # Can be Hydro or Indigo

##################################################################
## ROS-workspace
source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash
source ~/catkin_ws/devel_isolated/setup.bash
source ~/catkin_ws/install_isolated/setup.bash

##################################################################
## Additional Meka-stuff

export ROS_PACKAGE_PATH=$ROS_PACKAGE_PATH:~/mekabot/m3bie-demos/ros:~/mekabot/m3bie-tutos/ros:~/mekabot/m3bie-utils/ros:~/mekabot/meka-ros-pkg:~/mekabot/m3core/ros:~/mekabot/m3meka/ros
export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:~/mekabot/m3bie-demos/scripts:~/mekabot/m3bie-utils/scripts:~/mekabot/m3bie-utils/python:~/mekabot/m3bie-utils/ros
'>>~/.m3rc

echo 'source ~/.m3rc' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

(Recommended) Compile Legacy shared memory ROS

cd ~/catkin_ws/src
ln -snf ~/mekabot/m3core/ros m3core_ros
ln -snf ~/mekabot/m3meka/ros m3meka_ros
cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin_make_isolated
catkin_make_isolated
catkin_make

Get time synchronization for ROS (Highly recommended)

sudo apt-get install ntp
sudo nano /etc/ntp.conf

Comment all the servers lines and add 'server ensta.ensta.fr'. It should look like that :

#server 0.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org
#server 1.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org
#server 2.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org
#server 3.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org
server stratum2-1.ntp.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de burst iburst
server stratum2-2.ntp.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de burst iburst
server stratum2-3.ntp.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de burst iburst
server stratum2-4.ntp.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de burst iburst

# Use Ubuntu's ntp server as a fallback
server ntp.ubuntu.com
sudo service ntp restart

(OPTIONAL) Force the time to update every day (can drift after long shutdown)

sudo -s
touch /etc/cron.daily/ntpdate
echo '#!/bin/sh
ntpdate ensta.ensta.fr'>>/etc/cron.daily/ntpdate
exit
sudo chmod 755 /etc/cron.daily/ntpdate

(Recommended) Install some IDEs

Python (for most users): Eclipse + PyDev or spyder

sudo apt-get install eclipse spyder

ROS and C++ Real-time (Advanced users): Qt creator and/or Kdevelop

sudo apt-get install qtcreator 
sudo apt-get install kdevelop

(OPTIONAL) Setup robot's Pcs :

TODO: update IPs

sudo -s
echo '192.168.20.X meka-man'>>/etc/hosts
echo '192.168.20.X meka-marbel'>>/etc/hosts
echo '192.168.20.X meka-mariposa'>>/etc/hosts
exit

Configure your virtual installation

This scripts just updates the hostname in your m3_config.yml, that tells which computer is running the m3rt_server. On the meka it's meka-mob, but for vitual installtions, it's your computer!

configure_robot_config_virtual.py

Run the server and visualize the robot on Rviz (virtual installation)

# run the realtime server
m3rt_server_run 
# In another terminal :
# Launch roscore, robot description, robot state publisher, joint state publisher and rviz
roslaunch meka_description m3ens_viz.launch

You're done !

Checkout the wiki for more info !

Maintainer : Sebastian Meyer zu Borgsen [email protected] Credits to : Antoine Hoarau [email protected]

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