rosbot-telepresence

Manual ROSbot Driving over the Internet with Real-Time Camera Feed

Note

There are two setups on two separate branches available

branch name	description
ros2router (the current one)	Running ROS 2 containers on ROSbot and on PC with the interface in RViz
foxglove	Running ROS 2 containers only on ROSbot with a web user interface powered by Foxglove

🛍️ Necessary Hardware

For the execution of this project ROSbot 2R or ROSbot 2 PRO is required.

You can find it at our online store.

Quick start

Note

To simplify the execution of this project, we are utilizing just.

Install it with:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://just.systems/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- --to /usr/bin

To see all available commands just run just:

husarion@rosbot2r:~/rosbot-telepresence$ just
Available recipes:
    connect-husarnet joincode hostname # connect to Husarnet VPN network
    flash-firmware    # flash the proper firmware for STM32 microcontroller in ROSbot 2R / 2 PRO
    start-rosbot      # start containers on ROSbot 2R / 2 PRO
    start-pc          # start containers on PC
    run-teleop        # run teleop_twist_keybaord (host)
    run-teleop-docker # run teleop_twist_keybaord (inside rviz2 container)
    run-joy           # enable the F710 gemapad (connected to your PC) to control ROSbot
    sync hostname="${ROBOT_NAMESPACE}" password="husarion" # copy repo content to remote host with 'rsync' and watch for changes

🌎 Step 1: Connecting ROSbot and Laptop over VPN

Ensure that both ROSbot 2R (or ROSbot 2 PRO) and your laptop are linked to the same Husarnet VPN network. If they are not follow these steps:

1. Setup a free account at app.husarnet.com, create a new Husarnet network, click the [Add element] button and copy the code from the Join Code tab.

2. Run in the linux terminal on your PC:

   cd rosbot-telepresence/ # remember to run all "just" commands in the repo root folder
   export JOINCODE=<PASTE_YOUR_JOIN_CODE_HERE>
   just connect-husarnet $JOINCODE my-laptop

3. Run in the linux terminal of your ROSbot:

   export JOINCODE=<PASTE_YOUR_JOIN_CODE_HERE>
   sudo husarnet join $JOINCODE rosbot2r

Note

That rosbot2r is a default ROSbot hostname used in this project. If you want to change it, edit the .env file and change

ROBOT_NAMESPACE=rosbot2r

📡 Step 2: Sync

Copy the local changes (on PC) to the remote ROSbot

just sync

Note

This just sync automatically sync to device described by ROBOT_NAMESPACE inside .env file. Script locks the terminal and synchronizes online all changes made locally on the robot.

💻 Step 3: Launching the Control Interface on PC

At first start the ROS 2 Router and RViz:

just start-pc

And run teleop_twist_keyboard directly on the host OS or in Docker (choose one option):

just run-teleop-docker
# or
# just run-teleop

🤖 Step 4: Launching the Containers on ROSbot

Execute the commands below in the ROSbot's shell (you can access it with ssh husarion@rosbot2r)

Inside rosbot-telepresence run below command to flash the right version of the firmware:

just flash-firmware

And run the containers

just start-rosbot

Useful tips

1. Using Logitech F710 gamepad

Rather than employing the teleop_twist_keyboard ROS 2 package, you have the option to use the Logitech F710 gamepad. To utilize it, plug it into your PC's USB port and launch the joy2twist container on your PC:

just run-joy

2. Checking a datarate

To assess the data rate of a video stream being transmitted over the Husarnet VPN (which appears in your OS as the hnet0 network interface), execute the following:

husarion@rosbot:~$ ifstat -i hnet0
      wlan0
 KB/s in  KB/s out
    6.83   2744.66
    1.67   2659.88
    1.02   2748.40

3. Sending uncompressed video frames over the network

If raw image data is being transmitted over the network, you need to perform some DDS-tunning (both on ROSbot and PC):

For configs in LAN:

sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.ipfrag_time=3 # 3s
sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.ipfrag_high_thresh=134217728 # (128 MB)

For configs over VPN:

sudo sysctl -w net.ipv6.ip6frag_time=3 # 3s
sudo sysctl -w net.ipv6.ip6frag_high_thresh=134217728 # (128 MB)

Troubleshooting

Packet was not a Theora header warning

The log from your computer where you launched compose.pc.yaml may contain the following message:

[WARN] [1704479601.591809892] [rviz]: [theora] Packet was not a Theora header

Due to an issue in the theora codec, headers are probably sent only at the start. If you've initiated compose.pc.yaml following compose.yaml, it's essential to restart the astra service on ROSbot.

To do so, execute in the ROSbot's terminal in the /home/husarion/rosbot-telepresence folder the following line:

docker compose restart astra