Local Communication

Complex robotic applications involving multi-device communication can be latent when the service is distributed across WAN. This tutorial demonstrates how to have multi-device communication within the same LAN.

Learning objectives

This tutorial will show you how to deploy a broker package locally for inter device communication using rapyuta.io console.

Prerequisites

  1. Device requirements
    1. You should have access to three devices (computer or Raspberry PI 2 or 3) with an internet connection.
    2. Install the latest Google Chrome browser on the device.
    3. Ensure the ROS Kinetic Kame (ROS kinetic) is installed on the device.

      If the device has ROS Melodic Morenia installed on it, replace Kinetic with Melodic in all places where a specific version of ROS is asked for. The tutorial should still work the same.

  2. You should be familiar with the following tools:
    1. ROS topics
    2. UNIX/LINUX command terminal

Difficulty

Intermediate

Estimated time

20 minutes

Tutorial walkthrough

In this tutorial, you will add three devices namely Broker Device, Publisher Device and Subscriber Device. You will also create and deploy ROS Publisher and ROS Subscriber packages.

Add Broker Device

The Broker Device must be of amd64 CPU architecture.

  1. Click DEVICES > ADD NEW DEVICE.
  2. In the Device Name box, enter the name of the device say Broker Device
  3. Select Use docker compose as default runtime option.
  4. Ensure the ROS Version is Kinetic.
  5. In the Description box, provide a summary of the device say I am a communication broker
  6. Click CONTINUE.
  7. Click COPY to copy the generated Token

Paste and execute the token (otherwise called the device setup link) in the device’s terminal to set up the rapyuta.io client on the device.

If the device is set up successfully, you should see the following output at the device’s terminal:

Initialising the Rapyuta Platform

############(100%)
Successfully Installed!

Ensure that there’s a green dot next to the Broker Device, which indicates that it is online on rapyuta.io.

In production-like scenarios, ensure the broker device is assigned a static IP address.

Prepare Publisher Device

The Publisher Device is:

  • Raspberry PI 2 or 3
  • can have either arm64v8 or arm32v7 CPU architecture
  • must have ROS Kinetic installed on it
  • must have rapyuta.io tutorials installed on it

The custom rapyuta.io image comes with Ubuntu Xenial OS and ROS kinetic software installed on them. Moreover, the rapyuta.io tutorials are also installed on these custom images.

Learn how to prepare Raspberry PI

If you are using custom rapyuta.io image on the device, the catkin workspace is already set up for you, the io_tutorials repository is already downloaded in the workspace, and the source code is already built for you.

In this tutorial, the catkin workspace is ~/catkin_ws/, but you may choose to name your catkin workspace as you like and ensure that you replace all occurrences to ~/catkin_ws/ with your workspace name.

If you are using either a computer with ROS Kinetic installed on it, or a Raspberry PI without custom rapyuta.io image, you will create a catkin workspace and get the io_tutorials repository into the workspace.

To create the catkin workspace, you have to execute the below commands at the device’s terminal.

cd $HOME

mkdir -p catkin_ws/src

cd catkin_ws/src

git clone https://github.com/rapyuta/io_tutorials

source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.bash

cd ..

For the custom rapyuta.io image to support the build command, catkin build, you will set up the device by executing the following:

cd $HOME && 
mv catkin_ws catkin_old && 
curl https://storage.googleapis.com/artifacts.rapyuta.io/io_tutorials/catkin_ws_arm32v7.tar.gz | tar xz

The argument to the curl command, i.e., the URL address, changes based on the architecture of the device.

To build the source code in the catkin workspace, execute the below command in the root of the workspace:

catkin build talker

If you experience the error catkin:command not found, then the python-catkin-tools package is missing on the device, which is required for executing catkin build command. Install the package by running the command sudo apt-get install python-catkin-tools at the device terminal.

Add Publisher Device

  1. Click DEVICES > ADD NEW DEVICE.
  2. In the Device Name box, enter the name of the device say Publisher Device
  3. In the ROS Catkin Workspace box, enter the absolute path of the catkin workspace found on the device. If rapyuta.io custom image is installed on the device, the absolute path of the catkin workspace is /home/rapyuta/catkin_ws.
    Otherwise, the absolute path of the catkin workspace will be different for the device.
  4. In the Description box, provide a summary of the device say I am a ROS Publisher
  5. Click CONTINUE.
  6. Click COPY to copy the generated Token.

Paste and execute the token in the device’s terminal to set up the rapyuta.io client on the device.

If the device is set up successfully, you should see the following output at the device’s terminal:

Initialising the Rapyuta Platform

############(100%)
Successfully Installed!

Ensure that there’s a green dot next to the Publisher Device, which indicates that it is online on rapyuta.io.

Prepare Subscriber Device

The Subscriber Device is a:

  • Raspberry PI 2 or 3
  • can have either arm64v8 or arm32v7 CPU architecture
  • must have ROS Kinetic installed on it
  • must have rapyuta.io tutorials installed on it

The custom rapyuta.io image comes with Ubuntu Xenial OS and ROS Kinetic software installed on them. Moreover, the rapyuta.io tutorials are also installed on these custom images.

Learn how to prepare Raspberry PI

If you are using custom rapyuta.io image on the device, the catkin workspace is set up for you, the io_tutorials repository is downloaded in the workspace, and the source code is built for you.

In this tutorial, the catkin workspace is ~/catkin_ws/, but you may choose to name your catkin workspace as you like and ensure that you replace all occurrences to ~/catkin_ws/ with your workspace name.

If you are using either a computer with ROS installed on it or a Raspberry PI without custom rapyuta.io image, you will create a catkin workspace and get the io_tutorials repository into the workspace.

To create the catkin workspace, you have to execute the below commands at the device’s terminal:

cd $HOME

mkdir -p catkin_ws/src

cd catkin_ws/src

git clone https://github.com/rapyuta/io_tutorials

source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.bash

cd ..

For the custom rapyuta.io image to support the build command, catkin build, you will set up the device by executing the following:

cd $HOME && 
mv catkin_ws catkin_old && 
curl https://storage.googleapis.com/artifacts.rapyuta.io/io_tutorials/catkin_ws_arm32v7.tar.gz | tar xz

The argument to the curl command, i.e., the URL address, changes based on the architecture of the device.

To build the source code in the catkin workspace, execute the below command in the root of the workspace:

catkin build listener

If you experience the error catkin:command not found, then the python-catkin-tools package is missing on the device, which is required for executing catkin build command. Install the package by running the command sudo apt-get install python-catkin-tools at the device terminal.

Add Subscriber Device

  1. Click DEVICES > ADD NEW DEVICE.
  2. In the Device Name box, enter the name of the device say Subscriber Device
  3. In the ROS Catkin Workspace box, enter the absolute path of the catkin workspace found on the device.
    If rapyuta.io custom image is installed on the device, the absolute path of the catkin workspace is /home/rapyuta/catkin_ws
    Otherwise, the absolute path of the catkin workspace will be different for the device.
  4. In the Description box, provide a short summary of the device say I am a ROS Subscriber
  5. Click CONTINUE.
  6. Click COPY to copy the generated Token.

Paste and execute the token in the device’s terminal to set up the device manager client on the device.

If the device is set up successfully, you should see the following output:

Initialising the Rapyuta Platform

############(100%)
Successfully Installed!

Ensure that there’s a green dot next to the Subscriber Device, which indicates that it is online on rapyuta.io.

Create ROS Publisher package

  1. Click CATALOG > ADD NEW PACKAGE.
  2. You should provide information about the package such as the name of the package, its version, whether it is a singleton package, and a description.
    1. In the Package Name box, enter the name of the package say ROS Publisher
    2. In the Package Version box, type in the package’s version. By default, the version is set to 1.0.0
    3. Ensure Is a singleton package checkbox is not selected.
    4. Ensure Is a bindable package checkbox is not selected.
    5. In the Description box, provide a summary of the package say Publishes ROS topic for a subscriber
    6. Click NEXT.
  3. In the Component Name box, enter a name for the component, say Publisher
  4. Select Device as the Component Runtime.
  5. Ensure Is ROS Component is selected.
  6. Ensure the ROS Version is Kinetic.
  7. In the Executable Name box, type in a name for the executable, say talker
  8. For Executable type, select Default because the source code is already installed on the Publisher Device.

  9. In the Command to run in the docker container box, copy and paste the command:

    roslaunch talker talker.launch

    Ensure you always execute roslaunch command for explicitly starting the ROS Master instead of running the rosrun command, because the ROS Master will fail to start on rosrun, and eventually, the deployment will fail as well.

  10. To add a ROS topic, click Add ROS topic. In the Name box, enter /telemetry and set QoS to Maximum.

  11. Click NEXT > CONFIRM PACKAGE CREATION.

Create ROS Subscriber package

  1. Click CATALOG > ADD NEW PACKAGE.
  2. You should provide information about the package such as the name of the package, its version, whether it is a singleton package, and a short description.
    1. In the Package Name box, enter the name of the package say ROS Subscriber
    2. In the Package Version box, type in the package’s version. By default, the version is set to 1.0.0
    3. Ensure Is a singleton package checkbox is not selected.
    4. Ensure Is a bindable package checkbox is not selected.
    5. In the Description box, provide a summary of the package say Subscribes to ROS topic published by a publisher
    6. Click NEXT.
  3. In the Component Name box, enter a name for the component, say Subscriber
  4. Select Device as the Component Runtime.
  5. Ensure Is ROS Component is selected.
  6. Ensure the ROS Version is Kinetic.
  7. In the Executable Name box, type in a name for the executable, say listener
  8. For Executable type, select Default because the source code is already installed on the Subcriber Device.

  9. In the Command to run in the docker container box, copy and paste the command:

    roslaunch listener listener.launch

    Ensure you always execute roslaunch command for explicitly starting the ROS Master instead of running the rosrun command, because the ROS Master will fail to start on rosrun, and eventually, the deployment will fail as well.

  10. Click NEXT > CONFIRM PACKAGE CREATION.

Deploy local communication broker

  1. Click CATALOG.
  2. Under Communication packages, select Rapyuta IO Local Communication Broker package.
  3. Click Deploy package.
  4. In the Name of Deployment box, enter a name for the broker deployment say Communication Broker Deployment
  5. Since brokerComponent has Device runtime select the device you want to deploy on by clicking Refresh the list of online devices. It retrieves an updated list of online devices.

    As the component will be deployed on a device, its restart policy is already set to Always, however, you may override this value at the time of creating a deployment of the package.

  6. Select Broker Device from Select device for deploying the component drop-down list.
  7. Select the network interface parameter value as per your device on which you are deploying by clicking NETWORK_INTERFACE drop-down list.
  8. Click CREATE DEPLOYMENT > Confirm.

You will be redirected to the newly created deployment’s Details tab. The package is successfully deployed when the green colored bar moves from In progress to Succeeded indicating that the DEPLOYMENT PHASE has Succeeded, and the STATUS is Running.

You may analyse the corresponding deployment logs so you may debug if the deployment fails.

Deploy ROS Publisher package

  1. Click CATALOG > select ROS Publisher package > click Deploy package.
  2. In the Name of deployment box, enter a name for the deployment say ROS Publisher Deployment
  3. Since Publisher has Device runtime, select the device you want to deploy on by clicking Refresh the list of online devices. It retrieves an updated list of online devices.
  4. Select Publisher Device from Select device for deploying the component drop-down list.
  5. Under Device Config Variables, ensure that the ros_workspace and ros_distro are selected.
  6. Click Add dependency to add a dependent deployment.
  7. Select Communication Broker Deployment from the drop-down list of deployments. Ensure that the Communication Broker Deployment is valid and is already running. Dependent deployment
  8. Click CREATE DEPLOYMENT > Confirm.

You will be redirected to the Details tab of the newly created deployment. The package is successfully deployed when the green coloured bar moves from In progress to Succeeded indicating that the DEPLOYMENT PHASE has Succeeded and the STATUS is Running.

ROS Publisher Deployment

Ensure that the dependent deployment STATUS is Running as well.

You may analyse the corresponding deployment logs so you may debug if the deployment fails.

The corresponding dependency graph of ROS Publisher Deployment looks like: Dependency graph

Deploy ROS Subscriber package

  1. Click CATALOG > select ROS Subscriber package > click Deploy package.
  2. In the Name of deployment box, enter a name for the deployment say ROS Subscriber Deployment
  3. Since Subscriber has Device runtime, select the device you want to deploy on by clicking Refresh the list of online devices. This retrieves an updated list of online devices.
  4. Select Subscriber Device from the Select device for deploying the component drop-down list.
  5. Ensure that ros_workspace and ros_distro are selected.
  6. Click Add dependency to add a dependent deployment.
  7. Select Communication Broker Deployment from the drop-down list of deployments. Ensure that the Communication Broker Deployment is valid and is already running.
  8. Click CREATE DEPLOYMENT > Confirm.

You will be redirected to the newly created deployment’s Details tab. The package is successfully deployed when the green colored bar moves from In progress to Succeeded indicating that the DEPLOYMENT PHASE has Succeeded, and the STATUS is Running.

ROS Subscriber Deployment

Ensure that the dependent deployment STATUS is Running as well.

You may analyse the corresponding deployment logs so you may debug if the deployment fails.

The corresponding dependency graph of ROS Subscriber Deployment looks like: Dependency graph

If all of the above three deployments are successfully running, the logs of ROS Subscriber Deployment will print hello_world.

Since the communication broker is deployed on the Broker Device locally, and the bindable attribute is not selected (value is set to false) for both the ROS Publisher package and the ROS Subscriber package, the ROS topic (/telemetry) and in general, the data is transferred within the same local network. Thus, the application’s latency is comparatively reduced provided the Broker Device is in the same network as the Publisher Device, and Subscriber Device.