Communication with ROS through USART Serial Port
We always need to communicate with ROS through serial port as we have many devices like sensors, touch-screen, actuators to be controlled through USART serial protocol.
After some investigation, I found several ways that can make ROS work with the serial-port-devices:
- Use the package:
rosserial. It seems like only the "connected rosserial-enabled device" can work upon that, including Aduino, Windows, XBee, etc.(ROS
community said: rosserial is used with mcus that have rosserial code running on them.)
- Use the driver package: serial. It seems like a serial port driver for ROS programming. This should be the most free way but I didn't find out how to use it.
- Use the package: cereal_port, a serial port library for ROS, you can find it in theserial_communication stack, it's easy to use.
- The package: rosbridgemay also suit your needs (full disclosure, author of rosbridge here). Check outthis
video of using rosbridge with an Arduino (though the principles apply to any uController).
- A simple approach is to write a ROS node that can read/write text messages exchanged with the microcontroller over a serial port and convert these serial messages to ROS style std_msgs/String messages.Here we are going to share this way first.
- Kevin: a
service given by Kevin. It seems to work pretty good. This works well cuz a lot of our serial stuff is sending a message and receiving a response back, instead of separate publish/subscribes.reference
web
A simple approach is to write a ROS node that can read/write text messages exchanged with the microcontroller over a serial port and convert these serial messages to ROS style std_msgs/String messages. Here we are going to share this way first. ref:reference web
In that page, Bart says:
"A simple approach is to write a ROS node that can read/write text messages exchanged with the microcontroller over a serial port and convert these serial messages to ROS style std_msgs/String messages. A separate ROS node can then be written to convert
the simple text messages to specific ROS message formats (cmd_vel, odom, etc) based on whatever message protocol was defined for the exchange with the microcontroller.
Attached below is the source for code that I used for this purpose. There is nothing original in the code, but it may be helpful to someone new to ROS and Unix/Linux serial communication. Posting this type of a listing may be a bit unconventional for this site as short answers are generally preferred. Hopefully no one is offended. I would be interested in hearing if there are other successful approaches to the problem."
Let's implement this approach:
Enter the catkin workspace, build the package: (tutorial page)
$ cd ~/catkin_ws/src
$ catkin_create_pkg r2serial_driver std_msgs rospy roscpp
$ cd ~/catkin_ws
$ catkin_make
To add the workspace to your ROS environment you need to source the generated setup file:
$ . ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash
$ cd ~/catkin_ws/src/r2serial_driver/src
Add a file: "r2serial.cpp", Source code:
/* * Copyright (c) 2010, Willow Garage, Inc. * All rights reserved. * * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: * * * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. * * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the * documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. * * Neither the name of the Willow Garage, Inc. nor the names of its * contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from * this software without specific prior written permission. * * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" * AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE * ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE * LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR * CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF * SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS * INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN * CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) * ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE * POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. */ //r2serial.cpp // communicate via RS232 serial with a remote uController. // communicate with ROS using String type messages. // subscribe to command messages from ROS // publish command responses to ROS // program parameters - ucontroller# (0,1), serial port, baud rate //Thread main // Subscribe to ROS String messages and send as commands to uController //Thread receive // Wait for responses from uController and publish as a ROS messages #include "ros/ros.h" #include "std_msgs/String.h" #include <sstream> #include <pthread.h> #include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/stat.h> #include <sys/time.h> #include <fcntl.h> #include <termios.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #define DEFAULT_BAUDRATE 19200 #define DEFAULT_SERIALPORT "/dev/ttyUSB0" //Global data FILE *fpSerial = NULL; //serial port file pointer ros::Publisher ucResponseMsg; ros::Subscriber ucCommandMsg; int ucIndex; //ucontroller index number //Initialize serial port, return file descriptor FILE *serialInit(char * port, int baud) { int BAUD = 0; int fd = -1; struct termios newtio; FILE *fp = NULL; //Open the serial port as a file descriptor for low level configuration // read/write, not controlling terminal for process, fd = open(port, O_RDWR | O_NOCTTY | O_NDELAY ); if ( fd<0 ) { ROS_ERROR("serialInit: Could not open serial device %s",port); return fp; } // set up new settings memset(&newtio, 0,sizeof(newtio)); newtio.c_cflag = CS8 | CLOCAL | CREAD; //no parity, 1 stop bit newtio.c_iflag = IGNCR; //ignore CR, other options off newtio.c_iflag |= IGNBRK; //ignore break condition newtio.c_oflag = 0; //all options off newtio.c_lflag = ICANON; //process input as lines // activate new settings tcflush(fd, TCIFLUSH); //Look up appropriate baud rate constant switch (baud) { case 38400: default: BAUD = B38400; break; case 19200: BAUD = B19200; break; case 9600: BAUD = B9600; break; case 4800: BAUD = B4800; break; case 2400: BAUD = B2400; break; case 1800: BAUD = B1800; break; case 1200: BAUD = B1200; break; } //end of switch baud_rate if (cfsetispeed(&newtio, BAUD) < 0 || cfsetospeed(&newtio, BAUD) < 0) { ROS_ERROR("serialInit: Failed to set serial baud rate: %d", baud); close(fd); return NULL; } tcsetattr(fd, TCSANOW, &newtio); tcflush(fd, TCIOFLUSH); //Open file as a standard I/O stream fp = fdopen(fd, "r+"); if (!fp) { ROS_ERROR("serialInit: Failed to open serial stream %s", port); fp = NULL; } return fp; } //serialInit //Process ROS command message, send to uController void ucCommandCallback(const std_msgs::String::ConstPtr& msg) { ROS_DEBUG("uc%dCommand: %s", ucIndex, msg->data.c_str()); fprintf(fpSerial, "%s", msg->data.c_str()); //appends newline } //ucCommandCallback //Receive command responses from robot uController //and publish as a ROS message void *rcvThread(void *arg) { int rcvBufSize = 200; char ucResponse[rcvBufSize]; //response string from uController char *bufPos; std_msgs::String msg; std::stringstream ss; ROS_INFO("rcvThread: receive thread running"); while (ros::ok()) { bufPos = fgets(ucResponse, rcvBufSize, fpSerial); if (bufPos != NULL) { ROS_DEBUG("uc%dResponse: %s", ucIndex, ucResponse); msg.data = ucResponse; ucResponseMsg.publish(msg); } } return NULL; } //rcvThread int main(int argc, char **argv) { char port[20]; //port name int baud; //baud rate char topicSubscribe[20]; char topicPublish[20]; pthread_t rcvThrID; //receive thread ID int err; //Initialize ROS ros::init(argc, argv, "r2serial_driver"); ros::NodeHandle rosNode; ROS_INFO("r2serial_driver starting"); //Open and initialize the serial port to the uController if (argc > 1) { if(sscanf(argv[1],"%d", &ucIndex)==1) { sprintf(topicSubscribe, "uc%dCommand",ucIndex); sprintf(topicPublish, "uc%dResponse",ucIndex); } else { ROS_ERROR("ucontroller index parameter invalid"); return 1; } } else { strcpy(topicSubscribe, "uc0Command"); strcpy(topicPublish, "uc0Response"); } strcpy(port, DEFAULT_SERIALPORT); if (argc > 2) strcpy(port, argv[2]); baud = DEFAULT_BAUDRATE; if (argc > 3) { if(sscanf(argv[3],"%d", &baud)!=1) { ROS_ERROR("ucontroller baud rate parameter invalid"); return 1; } } ROS_INFO("connection initializing (%s) at %d baud", port, baud); fpSerial = serialInit(port, baud); if (!fpSerial ) { ROS_ERROR("unable to create a new serial port"); return 1; } ROS_INFO("serial connection successful"); //Subscribe to ROS messages ucCommandMsg = rosNode.subscribe(topicSubscribe, 100, ucCommandCallback); //Setup to publish ROS messages ucResponseMsg = rosNode.advertise<std_msgs::String>(topicPublish, 100); //Create receive thread err = pthread_create(&rcvThrID, NULL, rcvThread, NULL); if (err != 0) { ROS_ERROR("unable to create receive thread"); return 1; } //Process ROS messages and send serial commands to uController ros::spin(); fclose(fpSerial); ROS_INFO("r2Serial stopping"); return 0; }
Modify the CMakeList.txt file:
$ cd ~/catkin_ws/src/r2serial_driver
$ gedit CMakeList.txt
add/modify these lines as below:
find_package(catkin REQUIRED COMPONENTS roscpp rospy std_msgs ) include_directories( ${catkin_INCLUDE_DIRS} ) add_executable(r2serial_driver src/r2serial.cpp) add_dependencies(r2serial_driver ${${PROJECT_NAME}_EXPORTED_TARGETS} ${catkin_EXPORTED_TARGETS}) target_link_libraries(r2serial_driver ${catkin_LIBRARIES} )Save and Build the package again:
$ cd ~/catkin_ws $ catkin_make -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
He also offered a simple launch file that interfaces to two microcontrollers using two serial connections, put the code into
"~/catkin_ws/src/r2serial_driver/launch/r2serial_driver.launch" file:
<launch> <node pkg="r2serial_driver" type="r2serial_driver" name="r2serial0" args="0 /dev/ttyUSB0 9600" output="screen" > <remap from="ucCommand" to="uc0Command" /> <remap from="ucResponse" to="uc0Response" /> </node> <node pkg="r2serial_driver" type="r2serial_driver" name="r2serial1" args="1 /dev/ttyUSB1 9600" output="screen" > <remap from="ucCommand" to="uc1Command" /> <remap from="ucResponse" to="uc1Response" /> </node> </launch>
Usage:
$ rosrun r2serial_driver r2serial_driver 0 /dev/ttyUSB0 9600
or
$ roslaunch r2serial_driver r2serial_driver.launch
try:
$ rostopic pub -r 1 /uc0Command std_msgs/String hello_my_serial
$ rostopic echo /uc0Response
You may also need to remap the /dev/ttyUSB* to some name you like cuz you may have several usb-serial devices.If so, just Ref:重新指派usb转串口模块在linux系统中的设备调用名称(English Version: remap your usb-serial devices' names in Linux )
But Kevin mentioned a question: "Interesting, but a lot of my serial stuff is send a message and receive a response back. Instead of separate publish/subscribes have you tried a service? That seems like it would work nicely for this."
I also noticed a problem: The Linux's System RAM and CPU will be much costed by r2serial_driver when it is running.
Next time, we'll see how to use
Kevin's service to play ROS serial communication.
2. Use Service to play ROS-Serial communication
see this blog brother below...
http://blog.csdn.net/sonictl/article/details/51372534