stmobo/ballcollectorproject

Software for controlling VEX robots using ROS

BallCollectorProject

This repository contains code that can be used to control VEX EDR robots by using a serial link between the VEX Cortex-based Microcontroller and another machine with available serial pins, such as a Raspberry Pi.

It currently supports:

• Reliable serial-based communication between the VEX Cortex and the ROS controller machine
• Differential drive base control using the /cmd_vel topic
• Odometry using VEX sensors (such as IMEs)

Most of the interesting code is in the cortex_driver package (in src/cortex_driver). This package contains three node types:

• robot_driver, which handles communications with the Cortex, as well as computing odometry
• base_controller, which reads geometry_msgs/Twist messages from the /cmd_vel topic and computes left/right wheel velocities to send to robot_driver.
• drive_console, which implements a very simple interface for driving the robot manually.