Terra

Terra contains all the code that is part of a ROS codebase and implements the brains of our devices. This main branch contains the current fully integrated and tested functionality for the rover.

Current Functionality

RoverNet: cmr_rovernet

• Description: CMR controls stack (Jetson ↔ ECE) for arm control, drives control, and ECE feedback.

Controller Input: cmr_controller_remote

• Description: PS5 controller input reception for data sent by team laptop over UDP.
• Flow: Controller → Laptop → Jetson → cmr_controller_remote → cmr_rovernet.

Arm URDF Data: cmr_arm_sim

• Description: Hosts the Rover Arm's URDF for our Inverse Kinematics algorithms.
• Additional: Includes a launch file to visualize the arm: display.launch.py.

Arm Inverse Kinematics: cmr_arm_simulator

• Description: Contains the ROS2 MoveIt configs and basic launch files to implement IK for the rover's arm.

Arm PS5 Controller Control: moveit_servo

• Description: Initializes the IK algorithm, takes controller data from cmr_controller_remote, and outputs arm joint positions/velocities to cmr_rovernet.

Fabric Nodes: cmr_fabric

• Description: Custom nodes with better fault handling and configuration management.
• Features:
  • Launch ROS nodes using a config folder with TOML files.
  • Avoids manually launching each node.
  • Example: rovernet.launch.py and the config folder in cmr_rovernet.

IMU Input: cmr_imu

• Description: Pulls data from WitMotion's HWT905 IMU and feeds it into an IMU topic for other packages.

Custom Messages: cmr_msgs

• Description: Contains and initializes custom message types for CMR-specific node-to-node communication.

C++ Utility Functions: cmr_utils

• Description: Custom functions to simplify C++ ROS2 development (not used much anymore).

Camera Integration: cmr_cams

• Description: Contains the functiaonlity for using the Rover's cameras

GCS Bridge (Foxglove): launch/gcs_bridge.launch.py

• Description: Starts the Foxglove WebSocket bridge (foxglove_bridge) so Foxglove Studio can connect to the rover. Used in place of rosbridge_server — lower latency and speaks Foxglove's native WebSocket protocol.
• Install dep (Humble): sudo apt install ros-humble-foxglove-bridge
• Launch: ros2 launch launch/gcs_bridge.launch.py
  • Optional args: port:=8765 address:=0.0.0.0 tls:=false
• Connection URL from Foxglove Studio: ws://<rover_ip>:8765 (defaults; change with the port arg above).
• QoS overrides: camera / image / point-cloud / IMU / pose topics are forwarded with BEST_EFFORT and queue depth 1 so a stalled RF link cannot back-pressure the bridge. Command and service topics stay on reliable QoS. See the BEST_EFFORT_TOPIC_REGEXES list in the launch file.

Astrotech rover node: src/astrotech_rover

• Description: ROS 2 node for the Astrotech science payload. Runs the real hardware drivers by default (auger moteus stack, CMR mixing servo, TCD1340 Raman, SCD-30 environment); each can be swapped for a simulation driver via a URC_*_MOCK=1 env var for GUI development without hardware. Interface contract: src/astrotech_rover/config/astrotech_interfaces.yaml.
• Foxglove GUI (panels + layouts) and the full operator/dev guide live under gui/ — start with gui/README.md.

Running / developing the Astrotech GUI

One-time setup:

colcon build --symlink-install --packages-select cmr_msgs astrotech_rover
source install/setup.bash

Real hardware (default — the normal rover command):

ros2 launch astrotech_rover astrotech.launch.py

No hardware (GUI dev / demo — mock any or all features):

URC_AUGER_MOCK=1 URC_MIXING_SERVO_MOCK=1 URC_RAMAN_MOCK=1 URC_ENV_MOCK=1 \
  ros2 launch astrotech_rover astrotech.launch.py

Both bring up astrotech_node plus the Foxglove bridge on ws://localhost:8765. Then connect Foxglove Studio and import a layout from gui/layouts/. First time, install the custom panels extension (cd gui/extensions/urc-astrotech-panels && npm install && npm run build && npm run local-install, then relaunch Foxglove).

Full launch / debug / camera / sensor-wiring guide: gui/operator_guide.md. System overview and what's wired: gui/README.md.

Camera publishers aren't part of astrotech_rover; they're launched rover-side from src/cmr_cams/ (cmr_cv nodes) plus the stereolabs zed_wrapper. Against a hardware-free dev launch the Foxglove Image panels render but show "no messages on topic" — expected. See the camera section of gui/operator_guide.md.

A smoke test (build, launch, check topics/rates, call a service) is at src/astrotech_rover/scripts/smoke_test.sh; run from the repo root on a ROS 2 Humble machine.

TODO Functionality

• Autonomous Navigation: cmr_navigation
• GPS Functionality (inside of cmr_navigation in old main, gps.py)
• Arm Autonomy
• ArUco Tag Detection
• Drives Simulation
• AruCo Tag Navigation (Spiral Algorithm)
• Bird's Eye View
• Obstacle Detection: cmr_obstacle_data
• Drives GUI: cmr_param_gui
• Improved camera integration