Getting Started

After downloading, we recommend moving the ROSforLV_0.1 folder to user.lib in your program files.

The first thing to do after installing is to open up _ROSDefinition.vi, located in ~/ROS/Code, which should look something like this

• ROS Master in the top left is where you should define the IP and port of your ROS master. Do not include any protocol information in here (http, https). The default port for ROS masters is 11311, so use that unless you have changed it yourself. There is a known bug on Windows machines where TCP connections will not open when the ROS Master is set to a *.local address. To help protect against this, use the static IP you assigned the .local address to as the ROS Master.
• the Nodes list can support a number of different nodes for registering publishers, subscribers, etc. Unless one is provided for specific topics though, the first one in the list is used.
• Baxter Topics is where you should define any topics you are interested in making connections on. Specify the topic name, whether you are a subscriber, publisher, or service, and the explicit message type (sensor_msgs/Image rather than Image)
• Active Servers holds the list of vis running in the background, each of which communicates with a different topic. When nothing is running, this should be empty.
• FIFO Size indicates how far back you want to be able to look in the communications logs in _ROSMasterConsole.vi, which is shown below.
• Ports contains a list of active local ports. You shouldn't have to interact with this.

• Live Servers shows all the topics, services, and nodes you are currently running through Labview, as well as the port they are connected on and the node they were registered with.
• Clicking on the Single Calls tab will show messages that the system expects to only send once, such as registering a publisher, as well as any responses it got. Most XML messages are displayed here.
• Clicking on the name of one of the Live Servers will bring you to the Servers tab and show communication on that topic as well as information about the state of the connection. You can move between servers using the up and down arrow keys. Double clicking on the name will open up the vi server itself.