Account Configuration

Some configuration steps must be completed before it will be possible to execute ROS terminal commands. In particular, the following two commands must be executed in the terminal window:

export TURTLEBOT_3D_SENSOR=kinect
source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.bash

The first command sets a shell variable indicating that our Turtlebots are using the Kinect depth sensor. (There are several other sensors available.) The second command executes a ROS shell script that configures the terminal session for ROS. Most importantly, it updates the PATH variable so that you will be able to execute ROS commands.

You could execute these two commands every time you open a new terminal. It will be more convenient to modify your .bashrc file so that these commands are executed automatically. This can be accomplished by downloading the following script ros_config_account.sh. The script can be executed as follows:

chmod +x ros_config_account.sh
./ros_config_account.sh

The first line make the script executable and the second line runs it.

Turtlebot Simulation

• Open a new terminal window and type the following:

  roslaunch turtlebot_gazebo turtlebot_world.launch
  

  This should bring up the Turtlebot simulator. Use TAB completion to avoid typing each individual character.
• The left mouse button pans the camera, the right mouse button zooms the camera, and pressing both buttons allows you to rotate the camera.
• Type the following command into a new terminal window (or tab):

  roslaunch turtlebot_teleop keyboard_teleop.launch
  

  Confirm that you can drive the simulated Turtlebot using the keyboard controls.
• Type the following command into a new terminal window (or tab):

  roslaunch turtlebot_rviz_launchers view_robot.launch
  

  Select the check-boxes associated with "LaserScan" and "Images". You should see a yellow exclamation point appear next to the "Image" field, you can fix that by clicking on the triangle and selecting /camera/rgb/image_raw as the image topic. Zoom the camera out (using the mouse scroll wheel) until you can see the visualization of the laser data. Try driving the robot around once again using keyboard teleoperation.
• Once you are finished, press CTRL-C in the teleop terminal. This is the universal command to stop ROS processes in the terminal.

Robot Teleoperation (If Time)

• Grab a Turtlebot.
• Make sure the Turtlebot base is turned on and connected via the USB cable.
• Open a terminal and type:

  roslaunch turtlebot_bringup minimal.launch
  

  If all goes well, the terminal should fill with notification messages and the robot should make a pleasant electronic start-up sound. Ignore any warnings that may appear.
• Open up a new tab in your terminal and type:

  roslaunch turtlebot_teleop keyboard_teleop.launch 
  

  Once the instructions appear you should be able to drive your Turtlebot from the keyboard.
• Launch Rviz according to the instructions above. Experiment with visualizing the Turtlebot sensor data.