Designing a robot for AI-64 - Can anyone get ROS2 working?

General Discussion
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I’m working on a robot concept that includes the AI-64

No physical robot made yet, just laying out the PCB.

This is the v1.0 version for ESP32
smart

If anyone fancied trying to get ROS2 & Linorobot install scripts running on the Debian AI-64 that would be a nice demo for the bot.

If not I’ll just wait until summer when TI claim they will be adding Ubuntu 22.04 support for the chip.

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Hello,

No. Not me. I just wanted to reply. There are a couple more ROS and ROS2 ideas floating around these forums for the AI-64.

I wanted to try it out too. I got the source and failed at compiling it for three months. I tried in bits, permissions, and I did notice a docker container available for the build.

I dipped into the build file for the docker build and came up empty.

Seth

P.S. Another reason why I would like it to happen are these ideas:

  1. I like robots and mechanics as well as electronics.
  2. I enjoy building to completion.

One other reason I am replying is that I would like to get informed if people finalize a build environment that is successful for Debian Bullseye.

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It sounds like it might just be easier to wait for Ubuntu 22.04 to come to this hardware

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Hello @sam_uk ,

I understand that ROS2 or maybe just ROS needs Ubuntu but Ubuntu is a Debian Flavor. So, I was thinking that the ideas were to use a Docker container to handle the build and then use it on Debian.

Right now, w/ my understanding (just me), I cannot handle the research dedication and/or time spent to port the ROS2/ROS to the Debian distro on the BBAI-64 Debian distribution image(s).

Seth

P.S. I may try again one day, i.e. as I have seen neat advancements and openness from their organization in teachin’ and all things ROS2/ROS. I found a website that was not dated and they had like a gazillion teachin’ tutorials. I was going, at the time, to jump in and learn, learn, learn all things ROS2/ROS but my instinct was to build first and then learn. What does ROS2/ROS do that is not familiar I kept asking myself.

Anyway, w/ their tutorials and forums, I thought I could get far. Per Capita, I am a sore loser here. I tried building this, that, and then this and that. So, w/out it and w/out the build success “rate”, I am up to my eyeballs in angst against myself here. But…

  1. Try it.
  2. If it does not work, try another way.
  3. Take notes!

I would have loved to be the first person to build the Debian/ROS2/ROS/Bullseye/Docker containers images. But…not today. Not right now. a little on nerve is my approach so far. I am one person. I would need more people to make it a glorified success!

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Someone is pulling my chain…

https://docs.ros.org/en/foxy/Installation/Ubuntu-Install-Debians.html

Right but…

https://docs.ros.org/en/foxy/Installation/Ubuntu-Install-Debians.html#setup-sources

sudo apt install software-properties-common means something to someone in the Ubuntu realm…

I think, and I think, this is where I messed up.

Seth

P.S. There are some TI docs on the process and an install script…I will look for it later. Also…

I have found that this link is good most of the time, i.e. 99.99% of the time. Oops. Link: Index of /repos/ubuntu/dists but only armhf are working for now for some reason.

Maybe for offloading? I am not sure. Just speculation. Phew…it was easy to find.

Here: Robotics Software Development Kit 8.2.0 — Robotics SDK Documentation

I will try the build once more if and when I have it in me. For ROS2, docker seems to be preferable.

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Right now I guess it’s probably building it all from source, or going the Docker route.

Is there a Sid repo for the AI-64?

Or getting serious with Yocto

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You’ve certainly got to pick your battles. My plan is to focus on making robot hardware that works first. This will take several iterations and some months.

Then get it running on some ‘easy’ hardware, already well supported by ROS2/Ubuntu. At that point I’ll try some more challenging but potentially interesting hardware such as Radxa’s CM5. By the time that’s working hopefully AI-64 will have Ubuntu support with the help of the TI kernel/images.

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Good question about the Sid repo. I do not know. If you search the rcn-ee.com site or .net site, I am sure something will pop up.

I know even less about Yocto recently. I think some people are building w/ Yocto. I do not know them. Wish them luck!

Seth

Side note here…

  1. I saw Bootlin making Yocto available for easy builds w/ armhf for the am335x for the BBB.
  2. I have not seen them make anything for the arm64 port.
  3. Hopefully, some more people kick in here and tell all, i.e. as my experience is limited to what beagleboard.org persons do.
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If you are using a different ARM64 machine, like those provided by Solidrun (I own one), you can compile ROS2 from source and then copy the files over to the BBAI-64. All dependencies can be installed to a non-root directory and copied to a root directory on the destination BBAI-64 directory. I have compile ROS2 on the Jetson Orin in a similar way.

The main issue is that the BBAI-64 does not have a lot of compute resources to compile code bases as large as ROS2. This is why I recommend you don’t compile on the BBAI-64 at all and use a better machine.

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