Operating the Car

Car Operating Instructions

To operate Super COMO, assuming the default configuration with a connected joystick, the following steps should be followed:

1.Connect the Traxxas battery to the VESC

2.Connect the XTPower battery to the power distribution harness by plugging in the barrel plug

3.Wake up the XTPower battery then press the power button on the Jetson TX2 to turn it on and wait until it boots up

4.Open the super_como.launch file which can be found in super_como/workspace/src/hardware_interface/launch

5.Edit the on/off switches at the top of the file setting the default_value parameter to true for desired sensors and false for those that are not desired then save the changes

6.Open a terminal window and run the following command

roslaunch hardware_interface super_como.launch 

This starts up all the desired sensors, the VESC, and the control pipeline. The car can now be operated in manual mode by holding the top left back button (LB or L1) and using the analog sticks for steering and throttle by moving each up and down. Autonomous mode can be triggered in one of two ways: holding the top right back button (RB or R1) instead of the manual mode button or disconnecting the joystick completely. However, without an autonomous feature publishing its data to the proper topic, the car would not move.

To perform one of the sample autonomous features continue with the following steps

7.Open a new terminal window

8.Run the desired launch file from the super_como/workspace/src/control/launchdirectory by running the following command

roslaunch control <file_name>

Where file_name is the name of the desired launch file such as hallwaynavigation.launch, line_follower_with_lidar.launch, or objectdetection.launch

This would start up the desired sample autonomous feature as long as the required sensors are operating.