Problem driving my jackal robot

Question

I have a Clearpath jackal robot and I am having troubles with driving it using keyboard control. Whenever I run the command: "ros2 run telep_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard" I don't get any errors and the velocity commands seem to be published, but the rover does not actually move.

ROS1 was originally installed on the robot, so I have recently been upgrading everything to ROS2. One of these steps involved upgrading the firmware, which I'm guessing is where the problem might be. I have been following the instructions on your website (https://docs.clearpathrobotics.com/docs/ros/installation/robot) but I can't seem to complete the step under the "Start Service" heading. I am getting issues when running the command "sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl start clearpath-robot.service" it seems like it is having problems with my yaml file for the robot. It thinks I have the wrong battery type, but I have tried all of the ones listed on the Clearpath website and the one labeled on my actual battery (HE2411) and none seem to fix the problem. Here is my yaml file below:

serial _number: j100-0108 version: 0 system: hosts: self: cpr-j100-0108 platform: cpr-j100-0108: 192.168.131.1 onboard: {} remote: {} ros2: username: administrator namespace: j100_0108 domain_id: 0 rmw_implementation: rmw_fastrtps_cpp workspaces: [] platform: controller: ps4 battery: model: HE2411 configuration: S1P1 attachments: - name: front_fender type: fender - name: rear_fender type: fender rpy: [0.0, 0.0, 3.1415] extras: urdf: null ros_parameters: platform_velocity_controller: linear.x.max_velocity": 2.0 linear.x.min_velocity": -2.0 linear.x.max_acceleration": 20.0 linear.x.min_acceleration": -20.0 angular.z.max_velocity": 4.0 angular.z.min_velocity": -4.0 angular.z.max_acceleration": 25.0 angular.z.min_acceleration": -25.0 links: box: [] cylinder: [] frame: [] mesh: [] sphere: [] mounts: bracket: [] fath_pivot: [] riser: [] sensor_mount: [] sensors: camera: [] gps: [] imu: [] lidar2d: [] lidar3d: []

I feel like I have edited the yaml file well enough to match what exists in the Clearpath tutorials and the specifications of my specific robot, yet I continue to have problems so I think there must be some error in my file.

Please let me know what your thoughts are on why the rover is not moving! I appreciate your help!

Best, Austin Wohleb

Answer 1

HE2411 is not currently setup as a valid battery option for the Jackal in the software. Please enter a github issue to get this fixed (on the clearpath_config repo - feel free to assign it to me). In the meantime you can set it to HE2613 (the newer version of this battery) or you can omit the battery section entirely and it will default to that same battery. The only difference should be that the reported battery percentage will be less accurate until this gets fixed.

Backing up a bit, you are correct that you won't be able to complete starting the service with issues in your robot.yaml file. Once you have moved past those issues, when you are launching the teleop twist, make sure that you are launching it with the same namespace you put in the robot.yaml. (eg. ros2 run teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard --ros-args -r __ns:=/j100_0001)

Clearpath Robotics does not generally monitor stack exchange so if you are ever in need of our attention, feel free to also reach out to our support team or enter an issue on github and make sure to provide the terminal output of any failing command.