ROS Node¶

This node handles the communication of the Neobotix USBoard-USS5.

The USBoard-USS5 node has been tested with:

ROS Kinetic on Ubuntu 16.04
ROS Melodic on Ubuntu 18.04
ROS Noetic on Ubuntu 20.04

Find the code of the ROS node at https://github.com/neobotix/neo_usboard_v2.

Installation¶

Clone the neo_usboard_v2 repository into your catkin workspace source folder:

cd your_catkin_workspace/src
git clone https://github.com/neobotix/neo_usboard_v2.git

Clone neo_msgs into your catkin workspace source folder:
```
git clone https://github.com/neobotix/neo_msgs.git
```
Fetch the submodules: vnx-base, pilot-base and pilot-usboard:
```
cd neo_usboard_v2
git submodule update --init
```

Install vnx-base onto your system.

ROS Kinetic:

sudo dpkg -i vnx-base/x86_64/vnx-base-1.9.3-x86_64-ubuntu-16.04.deb

ROS Melodic:

sudo dpkg -i vnx-base/x86_64/vnx-base-1.9.3-x86_64-ubuntu-18.04.deb

ROS Noetic:

sudo dpkg -i vnx-base/x86_64/vnx-base-1.9.3-x86_64-ubuntu-20.04.deb

Compile your workspace:
```
cd your_catkin_workspace
catkin_make
```

Launch¶

In case of using CAN, the bus needs to be configured first:

sudo ip link set can0 down
sudo ip link set can0 type can bitrate 1000000
sudo ip link set can0 up

To launch the USBoard-USS5 ROS node use:

roslaunch neo_usboard_v2 neo_usboard_v2.launch

Parameters¶

The following parameters can be changed according to your needs in neo_usboard_v2.yaml:

Parameter	Value	Note
can_id	1024	Needs to be a multiple of 32.
can_device	None or can0
serial_port	/dev/ttyUSB0
can_baud_rate	1000000 (bit/s)	Needs to match what is configured on the board.
update_rate	5 (Hz)	Relevant only in transmit mode “Request”, see USBoardV2 GUI.

Note

If can_device is set, the CAN bus will be used for communication, otherwise the serial interface specified in serial_port is used.

The following parameters can be changed from the parameter server once the ros node is executed.

Parameter	Value	Note
low_pass_gain	1	low pass filter gain (1 = no filtering)
enable_analog_input	false	if to enable reading analog inputs
enable_legacy_format	false	if to use old message format (when transmitting automatically)
enable_can_termination	false	if to connect CAN bus termination resistance on the board
relay_warn_blocked_invert	false	if to invert warn relay output when a sensor is blocked
relay_alarm_blocked_invert	false	if to invert alarm relay output when a sensor is blocked
active_sensors(0 to 15)	true	Active sensors from 1-16
warn_distance(0 to 15)	100 cm	Warning distances of sensors 1-16
alarm_distance(0 to 15)	30 cm	Alarm distances
enable_transmission(0 to 4)	true	if the group transmits in continuous mode
fire_interval_ms	20 ms	time between pulses
sending_sensor	0	index of the sensor which will send the pulse (cross echo mode)
cross_echo_mode	false	if to enable cross echo mode

Note

For setting the ros parameters from the application, it is advised to utilize the /usboard_v2/set_parameters service. If it is required to set the parameters from the command line, then please utilize the rosrun dynamic_reconfigure dynparam set param value command to configure it. Please use the command ros param list to see the available parameters.

Topics¶

The following ROS topics are available:

Name	Type
/usboard_v2/measurements	neo_msgs/msgs/USBoardV2
/usboard_v2/sensor1	sensor_msgs/Range
/usboard_v2/sensor2	sensor_msgs/Range
…
/usboard_v2/sensor16	sensor_msgs/Range

Multiple USBoards¶

In case of using multiple USBoard-USS5 simultaneously, it is possible to start multiple ROS nodes, one for each board.

Parameters¶

Each ROS node needs its own yaml configuration file, see for example neo_usboard_v2.yaml and neo_usboard_v2_1.yaml in https://github.com/neobotix/neo_usboard_v2/tree/main/launch:

can_id: 1024
can_device: None
#can_device: can0
serial_port: /dev/ttyUSB0
can_baud_rate: 1000000
update_rate: 5
topic_path: /usboard_v2

can_id: 1056
can_device: None
#can_device: can1
serial_port: /dev/ttyUSB1
can_baud_rate: 1000000
update_rate: 5
topic_path: /usboard_v2_1

Note

CAN IDs need to be a multiple of 0x20, ie. 32 in decimal.

Launching Multiple ROS Nodes¶

The standard launch file neo_usboard_v2.launch contains an example on how to start another ROS node:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<launch>
    <!-- Load usboard_v2 params -->
    <rosparam command="load" ns="usboard_v2" file="$(find neo_usboard_v2)/launch/neo_usboard_v2.yaml"/>
    <!-- start usboard_v2 node -->
    <node pkg="neo_usboard_v2" type="neo_usboard_v2" ns="usboard_v2" name="usboard_v2_node" respawn="false" output="screen"/>

    <!-- Load usboard_v2 params for second board -->
    <rosparam command="load" ns="usboard_v2_1" file="$(find neo_usboard_v2)/launch/neo_usboard_v2_1.yaml"/>
    <!-- start usboard_v2 node for second board -->
    <node pkg="neo_usboard_v2" type="neo_usboard_v2" ns="usboard_v2_1" name="usboard_v2_node_1" respawn="false" output="screen"/>

</launch>

Simply uncomment the second block to enable a second ROS node.

To launch all configured nodes:

roslaunch neo_usboard_v2 neo_usboard_v2.launch

Help¶

If you receive the error unable to connect to port /dev/ttyUSB0, run the following command:

sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER

and restart your PC.