Route Admin Panel

About

The Route admin panel is a web user interface for managing routes of ROS and ROS2 based mobile robots.

It allows to:

• Define destination points
• Save robot position as destination point
• Send destination point
• Upload custom map
• Set a sequence of destination points

The Route admin panel is built as a Node.js application. On one side it is interfacing with ROS topics, while on another side it presents a frontend for managing robot destinations.

Application is available both for ROS1 and ROS2, branch master is compatible with ROS1, while branch ros2 is for ROS2.

Installation and usage will differ for each version.

Installation

Most of the nodejs libraries are common for both versions. Main difference is ROS interfacing library, for ROS1 it is rosnodejs and for ROS2 it is custom fork of rclnodejs.

Install for ROS1

Install Node.js:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_12.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt install -y nodejs

Create workspace and clone dependency repositories, it may happen that you already have it done, in that case, skip this step:

mkdir ~/ros_workspace
mkdir ~/ros_workspace/src
cd ~/ros_workspace/src
catkin_init_workspace
echo '. ~/ros_workspace/devel/setup.sh' >> ~/.bashrc

git clone https://github.com/husarion/husarion_ros.git
git clone https://github.com/husarion/rosbot_description.git

Clone route_admin_panel repository:

cd ~/ros_workspace/src
git clone https://github.com/husarion/route_admin_panel.git

Install dependencies:

cd ~/ros_workspace/src/route_admin_panel/nodejs
npm install rosnodejs express socket.io quaternion-to-euler math3d multer yargs
npm install

Build workspace:

cd ~/ros_workspace
catkin_make
. ~/ros_workspace/devel/setup.sh

Install for ROS2

Install Node.js:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt install -y nodejs

Create workspace and clone dependency repositories, it may happen that you already have it done, in that case, skip this step:

mkdir ~/ros_workspace
mkdir ~/ros_workspace/src
cd ~/ros_workspace/src
echo '. ~/ros_workspace/install/setup.sh' >> ~/.bashrc

git clone -b ros2 --single-branch https://github.com/husarion/rosbot_description.git

Clone route_admin_panel repository:

cd ~/ros_workspace/src
git clone -b ros2 --single-branch https://github.com/husarion/route_admin_panel.git

Build workspace:

cd ~/ros_workspace
colcon build
. ~/ros_workspace/install/setup.sh

Install nodejs packages:

cd ~/ros_workspace/install/route_admin_panel/share/route_admin_panel/nodejs
npm install express socket.io quaternion-to-euler math3d multer yargs uuid
wget https://forked-rclnodejs.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/rclnodejs-0.10.3.tgz
npm install rclnodejs-0.10.3.tgz
npm install

How to use

RAP offers the same functionalities regardless of ROS version, thus launching the panel will vary a little depending on version.

Launching with ROS1

Panel comes with prepared launch files for move_base, gmapping, node.js server and all other required components. Depending on your ROSbot version, you can start it with:

• for ROSbot 2.0 with MBED firmware:

  roslaunch route_admin_panel demo_rosbot_mbed_fw.launch

• for ROSbot 2.0 PRO with MBED firmware:

  roslaunch route_admin_panel demo_rosbot_pro_mbed_fw.launch

• for Gazebo simulator:

  roslaunch route_admin_panel demo_gazebo.launch

• for ROSbot 2.0 with hFramework (deprecated):

  roslaunch route_admin_panel demo_rosbot.launch

• for ROSbot 2.0 PRO with hFramework (deprecated):

  roslaunch route_admin_panel demo_rosbot_pro.launch

Launching with ROS2

Panel comes with prepared launch files for running it on ROSbot, in simulation environment or as a standalone panel.

Launching the panel on ROSbot

Prior to launching the panel, it is required to establish communication with CORE2 board:

• for ROSbot 2.0:

  sudo MicroXRCEAgent serial --dev /dev/ttyS1 -b 500000

• for ROSbot 2.0 PRO:

  sudo MicroXRCEAgent serial --dev /dev/ttyS4 -b 460800

Enable communication between FastRTPS on IPv4 and CycloneDDS on IPv6:

ros2 run dds_bridge dds_bridge

To find out more regarding the interoperability issue, refer to dds_bridge documentation

By default CORE is measuring time since reset, thus timestamps are published the same. If you want to use system time, use rosbot_time_publisher node:

RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_fastrtps_cpp ros2 run dds_bridge rosbot_time_publisher

Last step is to launch the panel application:

• for ROSbot 2.0:

  ros2 launch route_admin_panel panel_rosbot.launch.py

• for ROSbot 2.0 PRO:

  ros2 launch route_admin_panel panel_rosbot_pro.launch.py

Launching the standalone panel

Standalone panel does not require any additional steps:

ros2 launch route_admin_panel panel.launch.py

Launching the panel with Gazebo simulator

ros2 launch route_admin_panel panel_sim.launch.py

Accessing the panel

Once all nodes are running, go to web browser and type in address bar:

ROSBOT_IP_ADDRESS:8000

You need to substitute phrase ROSBOT_IP_ADDRESS with IP address of your device.

You should see interface like below:

ROS1 API

Below are ROS1 interfaces used by the route admin panel:

Topics

Topic	Message type	Direction	Description
/tf	tf2_msgs/TFMessage	subscriber	Transform from map to base_link frame.
/map_image/full/compressed	sensor_msgs/CompressedImage	subscriber	Map converted to grayscale image and compressed in PNG format.
/map_metadata	nav_msgs/MapMetaData	subscriber	Metadata for map.
/map_zoom	std_msgs/Int16	publisher	Current value of map zoom.
/plan	nav_msgs/Path	publisher	Currently analyzed path from make_plan service.

Services

Service name	Service type	Role	Description
/move_base/make_plan	nav_msgs_service/GetPlan	client	Get proposed path for given points without sending goal to navigation stack.

Actions

Action name	Action type	Role	Description
/move_base	move_base_msgs/MoveBase	client	Set destinations for navigation stack.

Map to image conversion

RAP is using additional node map_to_img_node for conversion from nav_msgs/OccupancyGrid to sensor_msgs/CompressedImage from husarion_ros package. The map_to_img_node subscribes map as nav_msgs/OccupancyGrid and publishes it as grayscale image with full resolution or cropped depending on current map zoom.

Topic	Message type	Direction	Description
/map	nav_msgs/OccupancyGrid	subscriber	Map source
/map_zoom	std_msgs/Int16	subscriber	Current value of map zoom.
/map_metadata	nav_msgs/MapMetaData	publisher	Metadata for map.
/map_image/full	sensor_msgs/Image	publisher	Map converted to grayscale image.
/map_image/tile	sensor_msgs/Image	publisher	Map cropped according to zoom and converted to grayscale image.

ROS2 API

Below are ROS2 interfaces used by the route admin panel:

Topics

Topic	Message type	Direction	Description
/tf	tf2_msgs/msg/TFMessage	subscriber	Transform from map to base_link frame
/map_image/full/compressed	sensor_msgs/msg/CompressedImage	subscriber	Map converted to grayscale image and compressed in PNG format
/map_metadata	nav_msgs/msg/MapMetaData	subscriber	Metadata for map

Actions

Action name	Action type	Role	Description
NavigateToPose	nav2_msgs/action/NavigateToPose	client	Set destinations for navigation stack.

Map to image conversion

Additional node map_to_img_node for conversion from nav_msgs/msg/OccupancyGrid to sensor_msgs/msg/CompressedImage has interfaces:

Topic	Message type	Direction	Description
/map	nav_msgs/msg/OccupancyGrid	subscriber	Map source
/map_metadata	nav_msgs/msg/MapMetaData	publisher	Metadata for map
/map_image/full	sensor_msgs/msg/Image	publisher	Map converted to grayscale image

Node is using image_transport::ImageTransport plugin to provide compressed images. RAP accepts only PNG compressed image, thus parameters for this image transport must be as follows:

map_to_img_node:
    ros__parameters:
        publish_map_metadata: true
        format: png

Using panel from any network

In case you would like to manage robot destinations outside of local network, you could use Husarnet for secure connection with your robot.

All Husarion devices comes with Husarnet preisntalled, if you are using your own device, install Husarnet according to installation guide.

If you do not have a Husarnet account, create it and log in to Husarnet dashboard.

In Husarnet dashboard, click Create network button, you will get a dialog:

Type route_admin_demo as network name then click Create button.

Go to your device and register it in Husarnet network by executing in terminal:

sudo husarnet websetup

You will get a registration link as a response, open it in web browser:

• In Name for this device provide my-rosbot
• In Add to network dropdown menu choose route_admin_demo
• Check Change device hostname checkbox
• Click Add device to your account button

You will be redirected to network summary view:

Click device name to open its configuration:

Check ROS master checkbox.

Optionally you can also check Make the Web UI public if you want to make panel accessible for anyone knowing device address.

Go back to your device and start panel with the same launch file as for local network.

Once the panel is running, you will notice new button WebUI next to your device address in Husarnet dashboard, use this button to view panel.

Wait! But what about real peer-to-peer connection?

To get access without need to log into any server, you will have to install Husarnet client also on your laptop, procedure is the same as for any other device.

Then register your laptop in Husarnet network the same way as you did with robot.

On laptop open browser and in address bar type: [ROSBOT_HUSARNET_ADDRESS]:8000 ROSBOT_HUSARNET_ADDRESS ia a value that you can find in Husarnet dashboard in device settings.

In the end you will be able to access route_admin_panel from any network using a secure peer-to-peer connection: