Overview

(R)emote (S)oftware (C)ommunications (S)ystem is a lightweight Raspberry Pi Flask server for streaming video to the browser and mapping post requests to serial instructions. This system is built to interface with a remotely controlled bot armed with disinfectant pumps to be deployed in a commercial setting. This project is deployed with a custom VPN server to allow flexibility in connecting bots with remote operators from any location with an internet connection.

Related Repos:

Bot Selection Interface: https://github.com/avesk/bot-selection-interface queries each instance of RSCS running on a private network, and populates a selection interface with hyper links to available bots

Running the APP

export FLASK_APP=App.py

For localhost: flask run

For Externally Visible Server flask run --host=0.0.0.0

For uWSGI Server: uwsgi --ini /home/pi/RSCS/uwsgi_config.ini

Installation

If OpenCV fails to install with pip install -r requirements.txt, try: pip install opencv-contrib-python==4.1.0.25 --no-cache-dir

Backing Up + Restoring Pi Image:

• OSX: https://pimylifeup.com/backup-raspberry-pi/
• Linux: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=46911

VPN Setup

Shutting down the VM

• SSH into the VM instance
• run sudo poweroff

Administrator Access

Starting the VPN:

• Contact support and request Administrative access, you will have to give them your public IP address. Support will whitelist your IP and send you the VPN URL, admin user name and temporary password.
• Visit the VPN URL/admin page and log in with your credentials.
• Go to User Management > User Permissions and select the More settings button next to your admin user name. Change your password to something secure, select Save Settings.
• Once the page reloads hit Update Running Server.
• Now, visit the VPN URL, and download your user locked client config file.
• Also visit the link and download the OpenVPN Connect for your OS.

• Follow the instructions for connecting to your VPN through OpenVPN Connect. You will need your VPN URL, user name, and password.
• You now should be connected to the VPN!

Registering Bots

• With an Admin account, log into the VPN Admin interface.
• Create a new user called bot[n] where [n] is some unused suffix for existing bots on the VPN with the following Permissions checked/selected:
  • No Default Group
  • Allow Auto Login
• Select More Settings and:
  • Give the bot a static IP address of the form: 10.0.0.10[n]
  • Check the all server-side private subnets box
  • Check the all other VPN clients box
• Hit Save Settings
• Once the page reloads hit Update Running Server.
• Now, visit the VPN URL, and login with the credentials for the bot user you just created and download the autologin client config file.
• rename the file to bot-client.ovpn
• SCP the config file into the Bot's home directory.
• Whitelist the Bot's Public IP Address in Google Cloud (Contact support if neccessary)
• Reboot the Bot
• The Bot should now be accessible in the VPN at 10.0.0.10[n]

Time out of sync

If the bot is having trouble connecting to the VPN, Try running: sudo date -s "$(wget -qSO- --max-redirect=0 google.com 2>&1 | grep Date: | cut -d' ' -f5-8)Z" This will likely be taken care of in the .bashrc file

More info:

• nohup sudo openvpn --config bot-client.ovpn &
• Connecting To Access Server With Linux

Registering Remote Operators

• Contact support and request Administrative access, you will have to give them your public IP address. Support will whitelist your IP and send you the VPN URL, user name and temporary password.
• Visit the VPN URL page and log in with your credentials.
• Once logged in, select Change Password, and update your password.
• Once the page reloads hit Update Running Server.
• Now, visit the VPN URL, and download your user locked client config file.
• Also visit the link and download the OpenVPN Connect for your OS.
• Follow the instructions for connecting to your VPN through OpenVPN Connect. You will need your VPN URL, user name, and password.
• You now should be connected to the VPN!

NGINX

• Start manually: uwsgi --ini /home/pi/RSCS/uwsgi_config.ini
• viewing error logs tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log

more info:

• https://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/2018/12/running-flask-under-nginx-raspberry-pi/
• https://iotbytes.wordpress.com/python-flask-web-application-on-raspberry-pi-with-nginx-and-uwsgi/

Known Issues:

Problems with systemd: This stack post helped to solve https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/103458/cant-use-sudo-systemctl-start-myservice/113933#113933