CSE5037 Robotics-II

Getting Started with Robonova

Important information:
You should have the setup file with you in form of the complete folder provided in the CD.
I am going to refer to the folder G:\Robonova CD for all future setup locations.

Installing VMware:
The first step is to install VMware workstation to install a virtual machine on your PC.
Go to the Tools folder G:\Robonova CD\Tools and then G:\Robonova CD\Tools\VMwarePlayer to get
the installation file.
Install the file and run VMware for non-professional use and it will not require any license.
You can also use the latest edition of VMware available on the internet.
The GUI will look like this on successful installation.

Here, I have already installed a virtual machine Ubuntu 64 bit. You can install multiple virtual machines
using this workstation.

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Installing Ubuntu:
Hanback has already given a setup of custom made Ubuntu 10 with preinstalled packages required for code
compilations. The setup is available at G:\Robonova CD\images\VM_Ubuntu .
Double click on VM_Ubuntu.exe and run the program.

You can change the installation location and then press the first button which was already highlighted.

The setup will complete the installation in a few minutes and close. Keep the VMware workstation closed
while installing Ubuntu. This step has installed a virtual machine having Ubuntu 10 and all the packages
on our given location.

Now, open VMware workstation and click on Open a virtual machine. I had installed my virtual machine
to the location C:\Users\6\Documents\Virtual Machines and now you should browse to
C:\Users\6\Documents\Virtual Machines\VM_Ubuntu and select Ubuntu.vmx file to open the virtual
machine. The VMware workstation will have the following look now.

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Then you should click on Play virtual machine and the OS will start loading. While loading, if asked for

Click on I copied it. On successful booting, you’ll find the login screen.

We suggest you to select other user and login with the following credentials:
User name: root
Password: hanback
Even if you use VM_Ubuntu, then also the password is hanback.

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Running the first code:

Connect a USB drive containing the folder Book_Exam from the location G:\Robonova CD and connect
to your PC. Then you should select connect to a virtual machine option to connect your USB drive to the
virtual machine.

And copy the folder to the Desktop location of the virtual machine.

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Now, open terminal and browse to the folder 5.2

The folder contains already compiled code with object file Hello already created.
Before we can compile our own code, we need to setup the cross compiler.

Setup Cross Compiler.

The codes will be compiled with arm-linux-gcc compiler.

The instructions are given on page 62 of the book as well.

First of all, we need to know the version of our arm compiler.

Type the command ls /usr/local/arm
And it will show that the version is arm-209q3

Then we need to edit the .bash_profile file of our profile to set the PATH.
Type command vi ~/.bash_profile
And then in the file write
export PATH=/usr/local/arm/arm-2009q3/bin:$PATH
and save and exit the file.
Then to set the PATH in the current session type:
source ~/.bash_profile

Now we are ready to compile our codes.

To compile the code, we have to type the command make.
If there is no change in the exisiting codes then you will get the following message.

To compile again, delete Hello file and make again.

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Now we can run the code with the command ./Hello

These files will not run in Ubuntu here and need to be transferred to the Robonova robot where these can
be executed.

Setup minicom for Robonova connection.

minicom is used to connect Robonova with Ubuntu through serial port communication of the Bluetooth
device. Connect your Bluetooth dongle to the PC and then connect it to the virtual machine. To check the
devices connected to the machine we use the command
ls /dev/tty*
This will show ttyUSB0 only when we connect the Bluetooth dongle.

And after connecting the dongle.

Now, first of all, we need to configure the serial port communication of minicom with command
sudo minicom –s

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Select Serial port setup and make sure that you have the following configurations.

Now exit the configuration and you’ll be connected to the Robonova robot. If the screen doesn’t show
anything, then restart the robot. The Robot will ask for the login credential and enter root when asked for.

Then you’ll get the welcome screen.

We can now transfer our compiled executable files to Robonova and run those using this terminal. I have
created a directory Testcodes to transfer such codes and run them.
To transfer a file from VM_Ubuntu 10 to Robonova, use the command lrz
After that press ctrl+a and then s (press z for all the options). Then select zmodem option and press enter.

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Using space and enter buttons select the file to be transferred and press enter to transfer. Remember, that if
your current folder already has the same file name, then it will not transfer. Therefor you should first delete
the existing file and then transfer.

The folder contains the uploaded file now. We can see that using the command ls. And run the executable
file with ./Hello

So, the Robonova terminal will print Hello World.

This way we can compile other programs in VM_Ubuntu using make command and then bring them to
Robonova using lrz and run on Robonova.

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