Husky A200

ROS Software Maintainer: Clearpath Robotics

Husky A200 is a rugged, outdoor-ready unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), suitable for research and rapid prototyping applications. All of Husky's basic capabilities are exposed through the clearpath_husky stack.

To install the software on your control computer, first ensure that you have Electric installed. Then grab the Husky stacks using package management:

sudo apt-get install ros-electric-clearpath-husky-robot

Depending how you want to use Husky, there are two recommended approaches for using the Husky stack.

Ad-hoc

For computers which are only sometimes used for Husky, it makes sense to start everything you want, when you want it. Ensure that the robot is powered on, and the USB->Serial adaptor is connected. Then run:

roslaunch husky_bringup minimal.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.

Installed

When you're setting up a computer to be embedded in Husky, you probably want the base nodes to come up automatically on startup. When you buy a computer from Clearpath with your Husky, it will come configured like this, but to do it yourself, follow these steps:

roscd clearpath_common
sudo ./setup_udev.bash
roscd clearpath_bringup/upstart
sudo ./install.bash eth0 administrator husky_bringup

Where eth0 is the computer's main network port, and "administrator" is the username to run ROS as. If you want to look in a different package for the minimal.launch file, you can change that as well (for example, if you want to make one which includes nodes for your sensors).

Now you can start the service and run teleop:

sudo service clearpath start
roslaunch husky_teleop teleop.launch

In the future, of course, the clearpath service will start automatically on bootup.

Beyond

When you're ready to mount more sensors and equipment, the onboard 5V, 12V, and 24V power supplies will provide the necessary juice to your payloads.

For more information or to receive a quote, please visit us online. Husky is also available for purchase on RobotShop.

Library Overview

• clearpath_base: Provides a kinematic driver node which consumes geometry_msgs/Twist messages on the cmd_vel topic and interprets them as serial movement commands (in m/s) to Husky. This node provides over ROS topics voltage and current status, estop status, battery state, and encoder information.

• husky_bringup: Provides a minimal launcher with recommended configuration for Husky.

• husky_teleop: Provides a launcher for teleoperating Husky.

• husky_localization: Provides an outdoor position estimate for Husky, based on GPS and wheel odometry data. Coming soon.

Basic Configuration

Hardware Drivers and Simulation

High-Level Capabilities

Media

• Husky A200 King of the Hill

• Husky A200 Snow and Ice

• Husky A100 Autonomous Skid-Steer Vehicle Control