ROS on old Robotino 2

[kdhansen]

Hi all you knowledgeable roboticists,

I am starting a research project with an old Robotino that has been sitting in our lab. I need to get some pointers to get me started, I hope you guys can help me.

I want to use ROS with the robot, but as I can read I need to install API2 for that to work. Can I do this from apt or should I compile from source? And must I compile using the Robotino or can I mount the CF card in my laptop and do it there?

With regards to ROS, I am thinking of putting a netbook on the robot, kind of like a Turtlebot. The netbook will handle all the higher-level not so time-critical stuff. But I am wondering if I could put some of the ROS stuff on the Robotino or if I should just let the netbook communicate with it through API2?

I will probably have more questions in the coming weeks. Thanks in advance.

Karl Hansen
Aalborg University

[misken]

I don't have a Robotino 2 but from my general experiences I would suggest:
-Install the API via apt-get directly on the robot (if that is possible this should avoid most errors you can make/get during compilation)
-depending on how powerful the onboard PC is, I would let the netbook do most of the work and control the Robotino through the API. If you want to connect special sensors directly to the robot it might be necessary to run ROS on the robot as well because the API doesn't support other sensors than laser and kinect. If you connect those sensors to the netbook it is not necessary to run ROS on the robot directly.

[facardoso]

I need to update the Robotino we have to API2, but the links are denied access. Could you share the installation packages?