0.2

Final release for version 0.2

Major changes:

• Update robot launch file and URDF description

  The robot.launch file now does not set the tf_prefix parameter which is deprecated and instead passes tf_frame_prefix argument to leo_bringup. The robot.urdf.xacro file now uses <xacro:leo/> macro which was added in the newest release of leo_description.

Minor changes:

• Don't add the ubuntu-raspi2 PPA to apt sources.

0.2rc1

Release candidate for version 0.2

New features:

• Flashing firmware through GPIO pins on Raspberry Pi

  The new OS is bundled with the leo_fw package which contains the latest binary release of leo_firmware and the script to flash the firmware using the onboard UART (with the stm32loader utility). As a result, to flash the newest firmware, you don't have the upload the firmware binary to RPi and connect an external USB cable to hSerial port. All you have to do now is to have the packages up-to-date and run:

  rosrun leo_fw update
  

  The script will guide you through the flashing process. The core2-flasher utility is still installed in the system, so you can flash the firmware the old way.

• Interactive ui for managing the state of the ROS nodes

  This is an experimental feature and is disabled by default. To enable it, set INTERACTIVE variable in /etc/ros/setup.bash file to true and restart leo service (systemctl restart leo). When enabled, roscore and rosmon will start in a detached tmux session, to which you attach any time, by typing leo-attach in the terminal. The interactive ui will allow you to view color-formatted logs and control the state of the nodes. To detach from the session, type Ctrl+B and then D.

• Bluetooth support

  The Bluetooth is now enabled by default and is set to use the mini-UART on RPi. We ported the pi-bluetooth package which configures the on-board BT on boot. To manage bluetooth connections it, you can use the bluetoothctl CLI utility or the bluetooth applet available in the graphical session.

Major changes:

• Use rosmon for starting nodes at boot

  The new OS uses rosmon, instead of roslaunch for starting the nodes at boot. rosmon gives us some benefits, the main one being the ability to start/stop specific nodes using ROS service calls, which is used by the leo_fw update script. If you have problems with with the new way of starting nodes or for some other reason want to return to roslaunch, set the USE_ROSMON and INTERACTIVE variables in /etc/ros/setup.bash to false.

• Start roscore separately

  The roscore is now started separately instead of by roslaunch. You can choose whether to start it, by setting START_ROSCORE variable in /etc/ros/setup.bash. If USE_ROSMON is set to false, roslaunch will be started with the --wait option.

• Perform a filesystem check every 10 boot sequences

  We adjusted the root filesystem parameters to force an e2fsck filesystem check on the first boot and every 10 boot sequences. This could prevent filesystem errors detected by the kernel at which point it could be too late to restore the data.

• Use the new ROS metapackages for Leo

  We grouped the ROS packages for Leo Rover into metapackages. The new OS installs leo_robot and leo_desktop (only in the full version) packages. This allows us to easily distribute new packages for Leo without everyone having to manually install them.

Minor changes:

• Start the ROS nodes as the default (pi) user instead of root.
• Disable the creation of user directories (Documents, Pictures, etc) when logged into an interactive session.
• Don't add the ubuntu-pi-flavour-maker PPA into apt sources.
• Install libraspberrypi-bin package which contains VideoCore utilities such as vcgencmd, raspistill, etc.
• Disable prompt about Ubuntu release upgrades.
• Change the default wallpaper for the graphical session.
• Allow the default user to shutdown or reboot system.
• Disable apport crash reports.
• Add links to Leo Rover Docs and GitHub in motd.

0.1

Initial release

0.0

Testing releases of the LeoOS