This week, I worked more on the robot communication infrastructure. Testing on the Ubuntu Linux Docker environment, I have infrastructure code performing all of the standard distributed communication patterns over ROS2. I prepared a ROS 2 Python demonstration package with three peer nodes. It exercises direct messages, broadcast, scatter, gather, reduce, allgather, allreduce, and a barrier. The package includes the node code, a launch file, and instructions for running the peers on separate computers.
I also outlined the software architecture for the design review: each Raspberry Pi runs its own sensor input, odometry, SLAM, and robot control software. The robots exchange mapping data over ROS 2, while RViz2 observes the results.
The progress is on schedule, next week I will be working with the team to integrate the infrastructure and Kevin’s SLAM work onto actual robot hardware for testing. This work will begin once the robot components arrive.