Husky (ROS Hydro)

ROS Software Maintainer: Clearpath Robotics

Husky is a rugged, outdoor-ready unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), suitable for research and rapid prototyping applications. Husky fully supports ROS—all of the packages are available in the Husky github org.

To install the software on your control computer, first ensure that you are using Ubuntu 12.0.4 LTS, and have ROS Hydro installed. Then grab the Husky robot packages:

sudo apt-get install ros-hydro-husky-robot

If you'd like the simulation and visualization components, please also grab the desktop packages:

sudo apt-get install ros-hydro-husky-desktop

If you are using a previous version of ROS, please see the ROS Groovy or ROS Fuerte version of this page.

Simulation

If you're not working on a real-life Husky, please see the husky_simulator page to get started simulating Husky in Gazebo.

Using Husky

Ensure that the robot is powered on, and the USB->Serial adaptor is connected. Then run:

roslaunch husky_base base.launch port:=/dev/ttyUSB0

Now plug in a joystick, and in another terminal, run:

roslaunch husky_teleop teleop.launch

Hold button 1 (the deadman switch) and you should be driving.

Upstart Installation

If the PC you are setting up will be used exclusively with Husky, we provide a script which creates an upstart job called husky-core to launch the basic Husky software upon system startup. Set it up like so:

rosrun husky_bringup install

The husky-core job comes up with the eth0 network device by default. Our suggested configuration is to set that device to a static IP and use it as your robot's network service port. You can stop, start, and restart the job like any other upstart job:

sudo service husky-core restart

To add more launch files to the job, copy them into the /etc/ros/hydro/husky-core.d folder. Next time the job comes up, your software will launch along with it. For details, please see the robot_upstart package.

If the computer you are setting up is one purchased from Clearpath Robotics with a factory sensor suite, the install script may be able to automatically detect some of your devices and add appropriate launchers files to the husky-core job.

For more information or to receive a quote, please visit us online.

Supporting Packages

Please click through to any of these for specific usage examples.