ROS on PC104

[aalmin]

Hello,

I'm new on Robotino (and on ROS) and I want to install ROS on the CF of a Robotino2 but I don't know if it's possible. Because for that I need to run ROS (Indigo) on Ubuntu 14.04 (and not on Ubuntu 9.04). I don't know if it's okay to move to another version of linux without problem on PC104.
I was wondering too if the communication between an external PC (with ROS to command Robotino) and the microcontroler LPC2378 had to go threw PC104 or if the external PC can access directly to the LPC2378 by the I/O card?

Thank you

[misken]

As far as I know, it's theoretically possible to upgrade Ubuntu to 14.04 but practically you would need to make a lot of changes to the original OS until all Robotino functions are working again. I would not recommend to do it.
I think you have two realistic options:
1. use a ROS version that is compatible with 9.04
2. use a dedicated PC (laptop, netbook, MiniPC) that runs ROS and control the Robotino via network. Generally speaking, even if you run ROS directly on the Robotino-PC, the communication mechanism is the same as running ROS on an external PC (ROS uses Robotino API to control the robot) so there is no difference in usage and no need to run ROS on the internal PC (despite aesthetic reasons).

I don't know exactly the architecture of a Robotino 2 but I think you neither can access the microcontroller board through ROS because the ROS drivers of Robotino don't support this. It doesn't matter on which PC you run ROS. But since (at least at Robotino 3) there is a serial connection between the Robotino PC and the microcrontroller, you can't access that connection externally. So you need to write your own function running on the Robotino PC to interface the microcrontroller.