Mekabot M3 Installation instructions

This wiki describes the full installation of m3 software to control/simulate the Meka robot at Ensta ParisTech. This installation supports 3 versions, depending on your needs :

Only the M3 python API for development
Real-time M3 (c++ and python) for development and simulation
Real-time M3 for Meka's real-time PC (same as above but with EtherCAT component)

OS Tested	Status	Notes
Ubuntu 12.04 x86	OK	w ROS Hydro
Ubuntu 12.04 x64	OK	w ROS Hydro
Ubuntu 13.10 x86	OK	w ROS Indigo
Ubuntu 14.04 x64	OK	w ROS Indigo/MoveIt!

Current version on the Meka : Ubuntu 14.04LTS on kernel 3.10.32, rtai4.0 (magma branch from the cvs), Igh EtherCAT master 1.5.2, ROS Indigo+MoveIt!

Build Status

Ubuntu 12.04 - 14.04 (x86/x64) w/ ROS Hydro/Indigo

Prerequisites

Necessary

sudo apt-get install cmake git libeigen3-dev libprotobuf-dev protobuf-compiler gnuplot-x11 libboost-dev python-dev python-protobuf python-matplotlib python-yaml python-gnuplot python-scipy python-sip-dev python-sip sip-dev swig python-pandas python-sympy python-nose python-numpy openssh-server openssh-client

Nice to have to maybe compile a kernel later

sudo apt-get install libqt4-dev moc g++ libncurses5-dev kernel-package gcc-multilib libc6-dev libtool automake

Note : if you only want the python interface, jump to the "install Mekabot" section.

The RTAI-patched kernel (x64)

Download

The recommended way is to compile your own kernel, but you can try this one if you like :

# Get the Rtai4.0 patched kernel headers
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByavWcVYC8lWWExlSlBLMjRaSW8

# Get the Rtai4.0 patched kernel image
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByavWcVYC8lWdERoazdNU285V2s

It is always best to compile your own kernel

Installation

sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.10.32-rtwar4_3.10.32-rtwar4-10.00.Custom_amd64 linux-image-3.10.32-rtwar4_3.10.32-rtwar4-10.00.Custom_amd64

Now boot on the new kernel using grub at startup. Please note the name of the kernel.

Note : you might have to either hold sift on startup or update the grub config to boot on the rtai patched kernel:

sudo nano /etc/defaults/grub

(Recommended) Configure your kernel boot options

sudo nano /etc/default/grub
# Then edit the following line: 
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
# To :
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash lapic=notscdeadline hpet=disable i915.i915_enable_rc6=0 i915.powersave=0 intel_idle.max_cstate=0 processor.max_cstate=0 idle=poll"

## Explanation
# lapic=notscdeadline : usefull for i5 and i7 processors, reduces latency by a factor of 10 on the meka-mob
# hpet=disable : rtai does not like hpet, so disable it to make sure it never uses it (it should not). Not mandatory as rtai is smart enough to not use it.
# i915.i915_enable_rc6=0 : disable deep sleep for processor, we want max power.
# intel_idle.max_cstate=0, processor.max_cstate=0 :  same as above
# i915.powersave=0 : disable the power management, i.e less interruptions.
# idle=poll : Poll forces a polling idle loop that can slightly improve the performance of waking up a idle CPU, but will use a lot of power and make the system run hot. Set CPU fan to maximum all the time (in bios). 

# Theses option will provide you ~300 nanosecond latencies (which is very low, so, very good).



# Then apply the update:
sudo update-grub
sudo reboot

RTAI 4.0 installation

Download

sudo apt-get install automake
git clone https://github.com/ShabbyX/RTAI.git ~/RTAI

Installation

cd ~/RTAI
 ./autogen.sh
make menuconfig
# Configure the Number of cpus you have, and uncheck oneshot timer
make
sudo make install

Notes: Rtai libraries, modules headers etc should be installed in /usr/realtime/, and that makes everyone's life easier.

Know issues : On 64-bit CPUs, if an error regarding -mpreferred-cache-boundary=3 shows up, edit line 57 in /usr/src/linux/arch/x86/Makefile (where linux is your rtai patched kernel) to set this parameter to 4:

sudo gedit  /usr/src/linux/arch/x86/Makefile
# 57: KBUILD_CFLAGS += $(call cc-option,-mno-sse -mpreferred-stack-boundary=4)

Part of the explanation: http://mail.rtai.org/pipermail/rtai/2013-December/026198.html

Know issues : on 12.04 32 bits machines, rtai fails to compile (some header is missing)

sudo apt-get install gcc-multilib g++-multilib libc6-dev
sudo ln -s /usr/include/i386-linux-gnu/gnu/stubs-32.h /usr/include/gnu/stubs-32.h

Post install

Update the ld library path to find rtai:

sudo -s
echo /usr/realtime/lib/ > /etc/ld.so.conf.d/rtai.conf
exit
sudo ldconfig

Install ROS

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) main' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list"

For Ensta people : use local repo (way faster)

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://fermion.ensta.fr/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) main' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list"

If on Ubuntu < 13.10

ROS_DISTRO=hydro

If on Ubuntu > 13.10

ROS_DISTRO=indigo

ROS + MoveIt! + ROS Control

wget http://packages.ros.org/ros.key -O - | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-desktop-full ros-$ROS_DISTRO-moveit-* ros-$ROS_DISTRO-ros-control ros-$ROS_DISTRO-ros-controllers python-rosinstall python-pip

You can check the ros_control implementation in the wiki.

sudo -E rosdep init
rosdep update

Openni (ROS Hydro Only)

sudo apt-get install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-openni*

Create the ROS-workspace

source /opt/ros/$ROS_DISTRO/setup.bash
## Create the ROS-workspace
mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src
cd ~/catkin_ws/src
catkin_init_workspace
cd ~/catkin_ws/
catkin_make

Install Mekabot M3

Download

git clone https://github.com/ahoarau/mekabot.git ~/mekabot
cd ~/mekabot
git submodule init
git submodule update
git submodule foreach git checkout master

Installation

Holomni PCV for the mobile base

If on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS:

sudo -E add-apt-repository ppa:hoarau-robotics/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install holomni-pcv

If not :

cd ~/mekabot
cd holomni_pcv
mkdir build;cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install

Mekabot

cd ~/mekabot
mkdir build;cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install

Note :

Compiling in Release makes the M3 system twice as fast (Essentially due to KDL).

If you are running on real hardware, install EtherCAT first, then compile Mekabot with -DETHERCAT=1 and in release as above.

Update your bashrc

touch ~/.m3rc
echo '
##################################################################
## Meka

## The M3 Software environnement setup
source /usr/local/share/setup.bash

## Meka config files location
export M3_ROBOT=~/mekabot/m3ens/real_meka

## Virtual Config onverlay
export M3_ROBOT=$M3_ROBOT:~/mekabot/m3ens/virtual_meka

## Some python hacks
export MALLOC_CHECK_=0


##################################################################
## ROS

#export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://meka-moch:11311 # If on real Meka, roscore is launched from meka-moch
#export ROS_IP=192.168.20.117 # Fix here your IP to avoid conflicts on Meka
source /opt/ros/indigo/setup.bash # Can be Hydro or Indigo

##################################################################
## ROS-workspace
source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash
source ~/catkin_ws/devel_isolated/setup.bash
source ~/catkin_ws/install_isolated/setup.bash

##################################################################
## Additional Meka-stuff

export ROS_PACKAGE_PATH=$ROS_PACKAGE_PATH:~/mekabot/m3ens-demos/ros:~/mekabot/m3ens-tutos/ros:~/mekabot/m3ens-utils/ros:~/mekabot/meka-ros-pkg:~/mekabot/m3core/ros:~/mekabot/m3meka/ros
export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:~/mekabot/m3ens-demos/scripts:~/mekabot/m3ens-utils/scripts:~/mekabot/m3ens-utils/python:~/mekabot/m3ens-utils/ros
'>>~/.m3rc

echo 'source ~/.m3rc' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

(Recommended) Compile Legacy shared memory ROS

cd ~/catkin_ws/src
ln -snf ~/mekabot/m3core/ros m3core_ros
ln -snf ~/mekabot/m3meka/ros m3meka_ros
cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin_make_isolated
catkin_make_isolated
catkin_make

Get time synchronization for ROS (Highly recommended for Ensta users)

sudo apt-get install ntp
sudo nano /etc/ntp.conf

Comment all the servers lines and add 'server ensta.ensta.fr'. It should look like that :

#server 0.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org
#server 1.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org
#server 2.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org
#server 3.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org
server ensta.ensta.fr

# Use Ubuntu's ntp server as a fallback (or not at ensta ;) )
server ntp.ubuntu.com

sudo service ntp restart

(OPTIONAL) Force the time to update every day (can drift after long shutdown)

sudo -s
touch /etc/cron.daily/ntpdate
echo '#!/bin/sh
ntpdate ensta.ensta.fr'>>/etc/cron.daily/ntpdate
exit
sudo chmod 755 /etc/cron.daily/ntpdate

(Recommended) Install some IDEs

Python (for most users): Eclipse + PyDev or spyder

sudo apt-get install eclipse spyder

ROS and C++ Real-time (Advanced users): Qt creator and/or Kdevelop

sudo apt-get install qtcreator 
sudo apt-get install kdevelop

(OPTIONAL) Setup robot's Pcs :

sudo -s
echo '192.168.20.117 meka-mob'>>/etc/hosts
echo '192.168.20.118 meka-moch'>>/etc/hosts
echo '192.168.20.119 meka-mud'>>/etc/hosts
exit

Configure your virtual installation

This scripts just updates the hostname in your m3_config.yml, that tells which computer is running the m3rt_server. On the meka it's meka-mob, but for vitual installations, it's your computer!

configure_robot_config_virtual.py

Run the server and visualize the robot on Rviz (virtual installation)

# run the realtime server
m3rt_server_run 
# In another terminal :
# Launch roscore, robot description, robot state publisher, joint state publisher and rviz
roslaunch meka_description m3ens_viz.launch

You're done !

Checkout the wiki for more info !

Maintainer : Antoine Hoarau hoarau.robotics@gmail.com

Name	Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit ahoarau Update README.md Jul 23, 2017 38009f4 · Jul 23, 2017 History 194 Commits
docs/hardware	docs/hardware	Adding documentation on the charger.	Apr 15, 2016
holomni_pcv @ f283fce	holomni_pcv @ f283fce	Hardware OK 30 oct	Oct 30, 2014
m3core @ 88d1913	m3core @ 88d1913	HW Ok with vel control	Oct 30, 2014
m3ens @ 7b51e19	m3ens @ 7b51e19	HW Ok with vel control	Oct 30, 2014
m3meka @ ee559c6	m3meka @ ee559c6	HW Ok with vel control	Oct 30, 2014
meka-cmake-modules @ fda4ab4	meka-cmake-modules @ fda4ab4	lots of fixes and fiability improvements	Oct 29, 2014
meka-ros-pkg @ 4b0e723	meka-ros-pkg @ 4b0e723	Hardware Happy	Oct 30, 2014
.gitignore	.gitignore	monitor and multiple connections	Oct 17, 2014
.gitmodules	.gitmodules	Cleaned up all non ensta	Sep 10, 2014
.travis.yml	.travis.yml	RTAI 4.0 form cvs backup	Feb 10, 2015
CMakeLists.txt	CMakeLists.txt	c++11 is now mandatory	Oct 29, 2014
LICENSE	LICENSE	Added LICENSE (meka)	Sep 30, 2014
README.md	README.md	Update README.md	Jul 23, 2017
setup.bash.in	setup.bash.in	lots of fixes and fiability improvements	Oct 29, 2014

License

ahoarau/mekabot

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Mekabot M3 Installation instructions

Build Status

Ubuntu 12.04 - 14.04 (x86/x64) w/ ROS Hydro/Indigo

Prerequisites

Necessary

Nice to have to maybe compile a kernel later

The RTAI-patched kernel (x64)

Download

Installation

(Recommended) Configure your kernel boot options

RTAI 4.0 installation

Download

Installation

Post install

Install ROS

For Ensta people : use local repo (way faster)

ROS + MoveIt! + ROS Control

Openni (ROS Hydro Only)

Create the ROS-workspace

Install Mekabot M3

Download

Installation

Holomni PCV for the mobile base

Mekabot

Update your bashrc

(Recommended) Compile Legacy shared memory ROS

Get time synchronization for ROS (Highly recommended for Ensta users)

(Recommended) Install some IDEs

Python (for most users): Eclipse + PyDev or spyder

ROS and C++ Real-time (Advanced users): Qt creator and/or Kdevelop

(OPTIONAL) Setup robot's Pcs :

Configure your virtual installation

Run the server and visualize the robot on Rviz (virtual installation)

You're done !

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