ROS 1 Getting Started

Install ROS

Note

The ROS 1 Interbotix SLATE packages are only compatible with Noetic on Ubuntu 20.04.

Follow the Ubuntu install of ROS Noetic guide on the ROS Wiki. Once installed, make sure to follow steps 1.6 and 1.6.1 to set up and install the development and dependency toolchains.

Install the Interbotix ROS Slate Packages

  1. Clone the noetic branch of the interbotix_ros_core repository into your catkin workspace.
$ mkdir -p ~/interbotix_ws/src
$ cd ~/interbotix_ws/src
$ git clone -b noetic https://github.com/Interbotix/interbotix_ros_core.git
  1. Remove the CATKIN_IGNORE file preventing the interbotix_ros_slate metapackage from being built.
$ rm ~/interbotix_ws/src/interbotix_ros_core/interbotix_ros_slate/CATKIN_IGNORE
  1. Run rosdep in the root of the workspace to install all required dependencies.
$ cd ~/interbotix_ws
$ rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y
  1. Build the workspace, making sure that you have sourced your ROS system installation first.
$ source /opt/ros/$ROS_DISTRO/setup.bash
$ cd ~/interbotix_ws
$ catkin_make

Post-Install

The USB-Serial converter device shares the same vendor and product ID with some brail readers. Because of this, the brltty program may claim the device, preventing its use by other drivers. Solving this issue is as simple as removing the package using apt.

$ sudo apt-get remove brltty

Verification

Configure your terminal environment, run the driver using rosrun, and check that the driver successfully connects to the base.

$ source /opt/ros/$ROS_DISTRO/setup.bash
$ source ~/interbotix_ws/devel/setup.bash
$ rosrun interbotix_slate_driver slate_base_node