starling2_interface

Starling 2 Interface is meant to be used in cooperation with the following packages:

[repo::branch - link]
kr_falcon_interface::master - https://github.com/tyuezhan/kr_falcon250_interface/tree/master
kr_mav_control::master - https://github.com/KumarRobotics/kr_mav_control
quadrotor_ukf::starling2_integration - https://github.com/tyuezhan/quadrotor_ukf/tree/starling2_integration

Starling2 Setup

Wifi Setup

The Starling 2 only has DHCP, so setting a Static IP is not possible [0], meaning you have to set the IP through the router. After powering on the Starling 2, connect to the wifi with the following command:

voxl-wifi

After this, enter 2 for station and enter mrsl_mast for SSID and enter the password. Get the password from senior lab members if you don’t know it. To set up the static IP, connect to the mrsl_mast network and go to 192.168.8.1 to get to the router. Username is admin and you can get the password from Fernando Cladera. Once on the website, go to the Advanced tab and click on the Setup drop-down and click on LAN Setup. Click Add and find the device corresponding to your device.
This drone will be identified by the last numbers of this IP. I.E, if the IP Address assigned is 192.168.8.45, the drone will be labeled with a 45. We will represent this identification number as <starling_number>

Install ROS Melodic

Voxl2 runs Ubuntu 18.04 and ROS Melodic can be installed by following the instructions here: https://docs.modalai.com/ros-installation-voxl2/
Install deps:

sudo apt-get install python3-catkin-tools libeigen3-dev ros-melodic-tf2-ros python-rosdep python-rosinstall python-rosinstall-generator python-wstool build-essential ros-melodic-tf2-geometry-msgs ros-melodic-tf ros-melodic-tf2-eigen ros-melodic-angles ros-melodic-tf-conversions ros-melodic-mavros-msgs ros-melodic-mavros rsync tmux ros-melodic-camera-info-manager

Autonomy Stack Setup:

On your LOCAL MACHINE run the following:

mkdir -p ~/voxl2_home/autonomy_ws/src
cd ~/voxl2_home/autonomy_ws/src
git clone [email protected]:KumarRobotics/starling2_interface.git
git clone [email protected]:tyuezhan/kr_falcon250_interface.git
git clone [email protected]:tyuezhan/quadrotor_ukf.git -b starling2_integration
git clone [email protected]:KumarRobotics/kr_mav_control.git
cd ../..
git clone [email protected]:voxl-public/support/mavros_test.git
git clone [email protected]:KumarRobotics/voxl-mpa-to-ros.git
echo -e '#!/bin/bash\n\nif [ $# -ne 1 ]; then\n    echo "Usage: $0 <last_digits_of_IP>"\n    exit 1\nfi\n\nlast_digits=$1\ndestination="192.168.8.$last_digits"\n\nrsync -avz --recursive --progress --exclude '\''*/build/*'\'' --exclude '\''*.git'\'' --exclude '\''*/devel/*'\'' --exclude '\''*.bag'\'' ~/voxl2_home/ root@$destination:/home/root/kumarRobotics/' > voxl_sync.sh
chmod +x ./voxl_sync.sh
voxl_sync.sh <starling_number>

The drone now has all of the source code needed to begin flying. SSH back onto the drone and run the following:

cd ~/kumarRobotics/autonomy_ws
catkin build
cd ../mavros_test
./build.sh
cd ../voxl-mpa-to-ros
./build.sh qrb5165
cp ~/kumarRobotics/autonomy_ws/src/starling2_interface/scripts/flight_start.sh ~/
cp ~/kumarRobotics/autonomy_ws/src/starling2_interface/scripts/recording_control.sh ~/
mv ~/.profile.d ~/old_profile_d

Vicon Setup

<launch>
  <node pkg="mocap_vicon"
    type="mocap_vicon_node"
    name="vicon"
    output="screen">
    <param name="server_address" value="mocap.perch"/>
    <param name="frame_rate" value="5"/>
    <param name="max_accel" value="10.0"/>
    <param name="publish_tf" value="true"/>
    <param name="fixed_frame_id" value="mocap"/>
    <rosparam param="model_list">['Starling2']</rosparam>
    <!--remap from="vicon/Starling2/odom" to="mocap_vicon"/-->
  </node>
</launch>

References:
[0] https://docs.modalai.com/voxl-2-wifi-setup/