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🚀 Hardware Demo

This guide walks you through the most important steps needed to run the autonomy configuration on a physical robot.

📋 Requirements

  1. Husarion UGV Platform & ROS Driver

    This demo is prepared for the Lynx and Panther robots. This version has been tested with husarion-ugv:jazzy-update-components-description ROS driver, which should be specified on the Built-in Computer (IP address: 10.15.20.2/24) in the /home/husarion_ws/compose.yaml file.

  2. Robot Configuration

    • Run the demo from the User Computer with IP address: 10.15.20.3/24.
    • Set up a LIDAR to publish either a PointCloud2 or a LaserScan topic.
    • Set up a camera to publish RGB Image and corresponding CameraInfo topic (not required if docking is not used).
    • Define a static transform between the LIDAR, camera, and robot frames, and ensure the published messages use a frame_id connected to the robot’s base_link. For more details, see the documentation on configuring transforms for sensors.
    • Attach an AprilTag to your docking station, if used.
    • Detailed instructions on hardware and software setup, and apriltag requirements can be accessed in this article: Autonomous Navigation and Docking for Panther & Lynx UGVs.

  3. WiBotic

    • If you plan to dock the robot using the wibotic_receiver, make sure this component is added to the robot URDF on the Built-in Computer (IP address: 10.15.20.2/24). Add the appropriate configuration snippet shown below for your robot to the following file: /home/husarion/config/husarion_ugv_description/config/components.yaml.

    For Lynx:

    components:
    - type: WCH01
        parent_link: cover_link
        xyz: 0.33 0.0 -0.15
        rpy: 0.0 0.0 0.0

    For Panther:

    components:
    - type: WCH01
        parent_link: lights_channel_1_link
        xyz: -0.02 0.0 -0.0185
        rpy: 0.0 0.0 0.0
    • After adding the component, restart the driver on the Built-in Computer to apply the changes:
    docker compose down
docker compose up --force-recreate

    • Make sure that the wibotic_receiver sensor is properly configured.

    • If the WiBotic system is not used, disable it later (during Step 1 in Navigation part) by setting export USE_WIBOTIC_INFO=False in the .env file.

  4. Just

    To simplify running commands, we use just. Install it with:

    sudo snap install just --classic

🧭 Navigation

Step 1: Configure the environment

Remember to run the demo from the User Computer with IP address: 10.15.20.3/24.

Configure the environment variables. Copy the .env.template into .env file:

cp src/husarion_ugv_autonomy_ros/.env.template src/husarion_ugv_autonomy_ros/docker/.env

Check and adjust the content of the .env file. Make sure that the file is located in the docker directory so that it works correctly with the docker compose. This file will automatically be sourced by just. Navigate to the directory from where the just commands might be called:

cd src/husarion_ugv_autonomy_ros

Step 2: Setup OS

just setup-os

Step 3: Start navigation

Run the navigation:

just start-hardware navigation

Step 4: Control the robot via Web Browser

  1. Open your browser and navigate to:

    • http://{ip_address}:8080/ui (devices in the same LAN) (default: http://10.15.20.3:8080/ui)
    • http://{hostname}:8080/ui (devices in the same Husarnet Network)

  2. If the visualization did not start itself, open a new terminal on the User Computer with IP address: 10.15.20.3/24, go to ~/husarion_ws/src/husarion_ugv_autonomy_ros and start the web interface:

    just start-visualization

⚓ Docking

Step 1: Ensure the navigation is running

Verify that the navigation stack is running by opening the visualization tool and confirming that the map is visible and that the robot’s position updates in real time.

Step 2: Define dock locations

Map the area, and after that, specify charging dock poses in husarion_ugv_docking/config/docking_server.yaml. You can use RViz or Foxglove to get the poses.

In the example below for dock named main the position is pose: [1.0, 1.20, 1.57].

[...]
    main:
        [...]
        pose: [1.0, 1.20, 1.57] # [x, y, yaw] of the dock on the map. Used also for spawning dock in the simulation.
[...]

If your robot is docked you can reset the odometry and make sure that the pose of the dock is set to [0.0, 0.0, 0.0] as well as the pose of the robot. To do that, reset the odometry by opening a new terminal on the User Computer with IP address: 10.15.20.3/24, going to ~/husarion_ws/src/husarion_ugv_autonomy_ros, and running:

source docker/.env
ros2 service call /${ROBOT_NAMESPACE:-panther}/reset std_srvs/srv/Empty

After calling this service, the odom frame is aligned with the current base_link frame. Consequently, the robot’s current pose is set to: pose: [0.0, 0.0, 0.0].

Step 3: Start Docking

Open a new terminal on the User Computer with IP address: 10.15.20.3/24, go to ~/husarion_ws/src/husarion_ugv_autonomy_ros, and start docking:

just start-hardware docking

Step 4: Dock the robot

Open a new terminal on the User Computer with IP address: 10.15.20.3/24, go to ~/husarion_ws/src/husarion_ugv_autonomy_ros, and dock the robot to the main station:

just dock main

or press LB + RB + Y on the gamepad (if AprilTag is visible).

The just dock <dock_name> command consists of two stages: navigating to the staging pose and then approaching the docking station from that pose. If the robot is already close enough to the docking station, you can skip the navigation stage and perform only the final docking maneuver by running:

just dock-direct main

Pressing LB + RB + Y on the gamepad triggers docking without navigating to the staging pose. This option works only when the AprilTag is visible in the camera.

Step 5: Undock the robot

just undock

or press LB + RB + X on the gamepad.

✅ Further Information

Now that you’ve gone through the demo, feel free to experiment and explore the robot’s autonomous features. You can adjust the configuration and parameters to match your setup: