Installing Ridgeback Software

Note

The physical Ridgeback robot comes pre-configured with ROS and the necessary Ridgeback packages already installed; therefore, you will only need to follow the instructions below if you are re-installing software on the Ridgeback.

There are three ways to install Ridgeback software on the physical Ridgeback robot.

The first two ways are using the Clearpath Robotics ISO image, and using Debian (.deb) packages. These two ways are covered in this section.

The third way is installing from source by directly cloning Clearpath Robotics Github repositories and building them in your ROS (catkin) workspace; however, this way is not recommended and will not be covered in this section.

Installing with ISO Image

Warning

Installing with the Clearpath Robotics ISO image will completely wipe data on the Ridgeback’s computer, since the ISO image will install Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal), ROS Noetic, and Ridgeback-specific packages.

If you are installing Ridgeback software on a physical Ridgeback robot through the Clearpath Robotics ISO image, you will first need a USB drive of at least 2GB to create the installation media, an ethernet cable, a monitor, and a keyboard.

You can download the Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal) ROS Noetic ISO image from here.

On a separate computer:

  1. Download the .iso file from the link above.

  2. Insert the USB drive.

  3. Write the downloaded .iso file to the USB drive using a software such as Rufus, Etcher, or UNetbootin. This will erase all data already on the USB drive, so make sure you have backed up anything important!

On the physical Ridgeback robot’s computer:

  1. Ensure that it is turned off.

  2. Connect it to the internet via the ethernet cable.

  3. Insert the newly formatted USB drive.

  4. Turn it on and choose to begin the installation process. The installer should run automatically.

Note

You may need to configure the computer’s BIOS to prioritize booting from the USB drive. On most common motherboards, pressing delete during the initial startup will open the BIOS for configuration.

  1. Step through any prompts that come up. Make sure you select the installation option corresponding to the Ridgeback, and give the Ridgeback an appropriate hostname. The computer will turn off automatically when the installation completes.

  2. Once the computer turns off, remove the USB drive and turn on the computer. It will now be running your fresh installation of Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal) with ROS Noetic, as well as your Ridgeback-specific packages.

  3. Install Ridgeback’s robot_upstart job and configure the Ridgeback bringup service, so that ROS will launch each time the robot starts. In terminal, run:

rosrun ridgeback_bringup install
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

  1. Finally, start ROS for the first time. In terminal, run:

sudo systemctl start ros

Installing with Debian Packages

If you are installing Ridgeback software on a physical Ridgeback robot through Debian packages, you will first need to ensure that the Ridgeback robot’s computer is running Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal) and ROS Noetic.

Add Clearpath Debian Package Repository

Before you can install the Ridgeback packages, you need to configure Ubuntu’s APT package manager to add Clearpath’s package server:

  1. Install the authentication key for the packages.clearpathrobotics.com repository. In terminal, run:

wget https://packages.clearpathrobotics.com/public.key -O - | sudo apt-key add -

  1. Add the debian sources for the repository. In terminal, run:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb https://packages.clearpathrobotics.com/stable/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/clearpath-latest.list'

  1. Update your computer’s package cache. In terminal, run:

sudo apt-get update

Installing Debian Packages

After the Ridgeback’s computer is configured to use Clearpath’s debian package repository, you can install the Ridgeback packages.

  1. On a physical Ridgeback robot, you should only need the Ridgeback robot packages. In terminal, run:

sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-ridgeback-robot

  1. Install Ridgeback’s robot_upstart job and configure the Ridgeback bringup service, so that ROS will launch each time the robot starts. In terminal, run:

rosrun ridgeback_bringup install
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

  1. Finally, start ROS for the first time. In terminal, run:

sudo systemctl start ros

Installing Desktop Software

It is useful to install Ridgeback’s software on your computer for the purpose of interfacing with the physical Ridgeback robot and/or to run simulations of Ridgeback.

If you are installing Ridgeback’s software on your computer, you will first need to ensure that your computer is running Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal) and ROS Noetic.

  1. On your computer, you should only need the Ridgeback desktop packages. In terminal, run:

sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-ridgeback-desktop ros-noetic-ridgeback-simulator