usma_baxter

Instructions on how to setup a workstation and bringup the EECS Baxter robot

1. Follow instructions on Rethink Robotics wiki until Step 6

2. After Step 6, perform the following before proceeding to Step 7.

1. Connect Baxter to your workstation using a CAT5 cable and set up a new wired connection as follows:

• Click on 'Edit Connections' in the networking menu and edit the active wired connection.
• Name the connection 'baxter'
• Under the 'General' tab, uncheck 'Automatically connect to this network when it is available'.
• Under the 'IPv4 Settings' tab, select 'Manual' for Method instead of 'DHCP'.
• Under the 'IPv4 Settings' tab, add IP address 169.254.11.xx, subnet mask 255.255.255.0
• Save and close Network Connections.

2. Edit the hosts file and add baxter's IP address with its serial number(which is the hostname).

• gksu gedit /etc/hosts
• 169.254.11.86 <tab> 011504P0022

3. You may now proceed to Step 7 to verify your environment setup.

4. And then onto communicating with Baxter.

For instructions on running the 'Pick and Learn' demo, click here.

Some useful commands:

1. If the sonar sensors are on when Baxter startsup you can turn them off with:
   rostopic pub /robot/sonar/head_sonar/set_sonars_enabled std_msgs/UInt16 0

2. To tuck Baxter's arm for storage:

• Enable Baxter if not already enabled:
  rosrun baxter_tools enable_robot.py -e
• Send the command to tuck arms:
  rosrun baxter_tools tuck_arms.py -t
• To untuck the arms:
  rosrun baxter_tools tuck_arms.py -u
• To disable Baxter:
  rosrun baxter_tools enable_robot.py -d