Alright! We have got the motors turning in ROS! We will get back to that subject later on. Got to start getting other stuff working with ROS. Lets do the IMU now. The IMU I have is a Razor IMU (SEN-10736)clone made by geeetech. I think the "real" Sparkfun one is cheaper now than this one, plus you don't need the add-on USB to serial board to communicate with the new (SEN-14001) Sparkfun IMU. So, If you want to do this Buy a SEN-14001 (Digikey has them for ~$37.00).
This will be the planning phase for this project. This will be a list of things I think I will need to do in order for the process to come together smoothly, quickly, and smartly (let's not bring up the motor controller stuff).
List of stuff I think I will need:
Software we will need to start the process (this stuff may be unnecessary if your IMU has the code already on it--I accidental erased mine):
Plan the steps:
1. Install headers and/or cables to the IMU and FTDI board.
2. Install drivers for FTDI board.
3. Install Arduino IDE
4. Check serial terminal for data
5. If no data sent over serial, install IMU code
6. Install IMU package in ROS
7. Launch the package
8. Ensure data is scrubbed for noise and calibrate if necessary
I think that is about that! This should go smoother than the motor controller part. *fingers crossed*
Why do we need this? This will give us heading, speed, acceleration, roll, yaw, and pitch data. This tells the brains of our robot the orientation and movement data and combined with other data will make the robot more cognizant of its position within a given environment.
7/11/18