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Redstone-RM/micro-ROS_Arduino_Nano_RP2040_Connect.md

Last active September 12, 2024 02:50
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Getting PlatformIO to install micro-ROS on Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect
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micro-ROS_Arduino_Nano_RP2040_Connect.md

Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect and micro-ROS

Goals:

Step 1. To get the board working with PlatformIO in VSCode with the micro-ROS Arduino library installed.

Step 2. Flash an example micro-ROS publisher app to the hardware.

Gotcha. Noun. Meaning: A road bump that I ran into that you can keep in mind. YMMV

My Env #Ubuntu 20.04 #VSCode #PlatformIO #Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect #micro-ROS #Foxy installed on host or Docker container

  • Install the board support in your IDE.

    • Arduino IDE board manager > Install: Arduino #Mbed OS Nano Boards
    • Do the same in VsCode #PlatformIO Boards Menu

  • Run the script included with the Arduino IDE called post_install.sh ( sudo). This will fix the #udev rules that cause problems with the RP boot loader that prevents flashing the board from Arduino IDE. Copies of the script were located here for me /home/username/.arduino15/packages/arduino/hardware/mbed_nano/2.8.0/post_install.sh /home/username/.platformio/packages/framework-arduino-mbed/post_install.sh These should contain: Raspberry Pi RP2040 bootloader mode UDEV rules

  • Configure PlatformIO

[env:nanorp2040connect]
platform = raspberrypi
board = nanorp2040connect
framework = arduino
extra_scripts = fix_linker.py

build_flags =
    -L ./.pio/libdeps/nanorp2040connect/micro_ros_arduino/src/cortex-m0plus/
    -D ARDUINO_NANO_RP2040_CONNECT

lib_deps =
    arduino-libraries/WiFiNINA@^1.8.13
    https://github.com/micro-ROS/micro_ros_arduino
    SPI

platform_packages =
  toolchain-gccarmnoneeabi @ ~1.70201.0
  framework-arduino-mbed @ ~2.4.1

lib_ldf_mode = chain+
- If you need to manually specify the serial port settings add your own version of the following for port and baud. Ignore this otherwise.
	upload_port = /dev/ttyACM0
	monitor_speed = 57600

  • Create fix_linker.py in same dir as platformio.ini - Ref Known issue. 774 & 780

    fix_linker.py

Import("env")

env["_LIBFLAGS"] =  ('-Wl,--start-group -Wl,--whole-archive '
                    '${_stripixes(LIBLINKPREFIX, LIBS, LIBLINKSUFFIX, LIBPREFIXES, LIBSUFFIXES, __env__)} '
                    '-Wl,--no-whole-archive -lstdc++ -lsupc++ -lm -lc -lgcc -lnosys -lmicroros -Wl,--end-group')
  • Run a test build. I used the blink sketch that was included as an example in the Ardunio IDE for the board.

#gotcha I ran into a problem that was a known issue but the posted fix required an extra step of manually including SPI in the ini file. This has been done. For ref: SPI.h not found. micro-ROS/micro_ros_arduino#780

Step 2 Build and flash micro-ros Application Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect

The micro-ROS build system workflow is a four-step procedure.

  • Create
    • Download all the required code repositories and cross-compilation toolchains for the specific hardware platform. Also some sample micro-ROS apps.
  • Configure
    • We select which app is going to be cross-compiled by the toolchain. Some other options, such as transport, agent’s IP address/port (for UDP transport) or device ID (for serial connections) will be also selected in this step. Skipped. As we are cmpiling micro-ROS in the host machine, rather than on a board or with an RTOS, the cross-compilation implemented by the configuration step is not required in this case..
  • Build
    • Cross-compilation takes place and the platform-specific binaries are generated
  • Flash
    • The binaries generated in the previous step are flashed onto the hardware platform memory

You can use a docker container with a fresh ROS 2 Foxy installation. (I did not) The one that serves the purpose is the container run by the command:

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

List of gotchas

#gotcha 1 **I did not have #rosdep** . The source tutorial seemed to take it for granted that it was already installed. I had to install it. 

#gotcha 2 **I did not have #colcon installed** So I needed to install it.

Install micro-ROS build system & Firmware Workspace

Once you have a ROS 2 installation in the computer, follow these steps to install the micro-ROS build system:

# Source the ROS 2 installation
source /opt/ros/$ROS_DISTRO/setup.bash

# Create a new firmware workspace  workspace and download the micro-ROS tools
cd /home/username/Dev/ROS2/micro-ROS
mkdir microros_ws
cd microros_ws
git clone -b $ROS_DISTRO https://github.com/micro-ROS/micro_ros_setup.git src/micro_ros_setup


# Install pip & rosdep
sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3-rosdep2 python3-pip

# Update dependencies using rosdep - #gotcha 
sudo apt update && rosdep update
rosdep install --from-path src --ignore-src -y

# Install colcon if not installed. 
sudo apt install python3-colcon-common-extensions

# Build micro-ROS tools - #gotcha
colcon build

# Source micro-ROS tools 
source install/local_setup.bash

# Create firmware 
ros2 run micro_ros_setup create_firmware_ws.sh host
# Once executed, a folder named `firmware` must be present in your workspace.

Build Step

ros2 run micro_ros_setup build_firmware.sh
source install/local_setup.bash

After a 13min 37s with my CPU pinned to max and hoping it would not overheat. I received the following output.

title: build summary
Summary: 38 packages finished [13min 37s]
  9 packages had stderr output: common_interfaces micro_ros_demos_rclc micro_ros_demos_rclcpp micro_ros_setup microxrcedds_client rmw_microxrcedds rosidl_typesupport_microxrcedds_c_tests rosidl_typesupport_microxrcedds_cpp_tests rosidl_typesupport_microxrcedds_test_msg

The #micro-ROS app is ready to be connected to a #micro-ROS-agent to start talking to the rest of the #ROS2 world.

Creating and running the micro-ROS agent

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

# Build step
# Build the agent packages. When this is done, source the installation:
ros2 run micro_ros_setup build_agent.sh
source install/local_setup.bash

# Now that we have the client and agent installed 

# Run a micro-ROS agent
ros2 run micro_ros_agent micro_ros_agent udp4 --port 8888

# Open another terminal to run the mcro-ROS node
source /opt/ros/$ROS_DISTRO/setup.bash
source install/local_setup.bash

# Use RMW Micro XRCE-DDS implementation
export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_microxrcedds

# Run the micro-ROS node
ros2 run micro_ros_demos_rclc ping_pong

Testing

To test if everything is working. Open a bunch of terminal windows so you can:

# Subscribe to micro-ROS ping topic
ros2 topic echo /microROS/ping

# Subscribe to micro-ROS pong topic
ros2 topic echo /microROS/pong

Now publish 'fake_ping' on the ping topic with ROS 2 from yet another command line

# Send a fake ping
ros2 topic pub --once /microROS/ping std_msgs/msg/Header '{frame_id: "fake_ping"}'

You should see the fake_ping some into the ping topic and the reply on the pong topic. If you open multiple ping_pong micro-ros apps then you will see their different IDs while the interact.

Flash Step

Flashing the #firmware

At this point we have the micro_ros Tools and Agent installed. Above we ran the agent listening on UDP port 8888. Here we use serial port / USB (in this case my board is ttyACM0)

ros2 run micro_ros_agent micro_ros_agent serial --dev /dev/ttyACM0

Hit Ctrl-C. We dont want anything using the serial port on when we upload to the Arduino.

Grab the sample code #micro-ROS_publisher

I Pasted the sample code into Main.cpp in the platformIO project and ran the build and upload. I ran the agent again and I hit reset the Arduino and agent started to see the publisher.

username@laptop:~/Dev/ROS2/micro-ROS/microros_ws$ ros2 run micro_ros_agent micro_ros_agent serial --dev /dev/ttyACM0 
[1648508910.130826] info     | TermiosAgentLinux.cpp | init                     | running...             | fd: 3
[1648508911.571930] info     | Root.cpp           | delete_client            | delete                 | client_key: 0x3E6A72F9
[1648508911.571971] info     | SessionManager.hpp | destroy_session          | session closed         | client_key: 0x3E6A72F9, address: 0
[1648508911.571987] info     | Root.cpp           | create_client            | create                 | client_key: 0x3FDE8509, session_id: 0x81
[1648508911.572000] info     | SessionManager.hpp | establish_session        | session established    | client_key: 0x3FDE8509, address: 0
[1648508911.580306] info     | ProxyClient.cpp    | create_participant       | participant created    | client_key: 0x3FDE8509, participant_id: 0x000(1)
[1648508911.583246] info     | ProxyClient.cpp    | create_topic             | topic created          | client_key: 0x3FDE8509, topic_id: 0x000(2), participant_id: 0x000(1)
[1648508911.585176] info     | ProxyClient.cpp    | create_publisher         | publisher created      | client_key: 0x3FDE8509, publisher_id: 0x000(3), participant_id: 0x000(1)
[1648508911.587138] info     | ProxyClient.cpp    | create_datawriter        | datawriter created     | client_key: 0x3FDE8509, datawriter_id: 0x000(5), publisher_id: 0x000(3)


username@laptop:~/Dev/ROS2/micro-ROS/microros_ws$ ros2 topic echo /micro_ros_arduino_node_publisher
data: 0
---
data: 1
---
data: 2
---

Note. I wrote this as documnetation of my own process so it was repeatable. All acknowlegement to the source.

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