Installation

Create Environment

We first create a new Python environment with ROS Noetic installed. We use RoboStack to achieve this. According to RoboStack’s instructions, please do not use the Anaconda installer, but rather start with miniforge that is much more “minimal” installer. See here for more details.

Run the following to create a new environment named brs with Python 3.11.

conda create -n brs python=3.11
conda activate brs

# this adds the conda-forge channel to the new created environment configuration
conda config --env --add channels conda-forge
# and the robostack channel
conda config --env --add channels robostack-staging
# remove the defaults channel just in case, this might return an error if it is not in the list which is ok
conda config --env --remove channels defaults

Then install ROS Noetic:

conda install ros-noetic-desktop

Reactivate the environment so that the changes take effect:

conda deactivate
conda activate brs

To test the installation, run roscore and check if it works.

Install brs_ctrl

First clone our repository:

git clone https://github.com/behavior-robot-suite/brs-ctrl

Then install the package (remove -e if you don’t want to install it in editable mode):

cd brs-ctrl
pip install -e .

Install Dynamixel Dependencies

Because Dynamixel SDK is not provided as a standalone package, we need to install it manually.

git clone https://github.com/ROBOTIS-GIT/DynamixelSDK
cd DynamixelSDK/python
python3 setup.py install

Install JoyCon Dependencies

First install joycon-python:

pip install joycon-python pyglm

Then we need to modify the udev rules. Create a new udev rules file:

sudo vim /etc/udev/rules.d/50-nintendo-switch.rules

And add the following to the file:

# Switch Joy-con (L) (Bluetooth only)
KERNEL=="hidraw*", SUBSYSTEM=="hidraw", KERNELS=="0005:057E:2006.*", MODE="0666"

# Switch Joy-con (R) (Bluetooth only)
KERNEL=="hidraw*", SUBSYSTEM=="hidraw", KERNELS=="0005:057E:2007.*", MODE="0666"

# Switch Pro controller (USB and Bluetooth)
KERNEL=="hidraw*", SUBSYSTEM=="hidraw", ATTRS{idVendor}=="057e", ATTRS{idProduct}=="2009", MODE="0666"
KERNEL=="hidraw*", SUBSYSTEM=="hidraw", KERNELS=="0005:057E:2009.*", MODE="0666"

# Switch Joy-con charging grip (USB only)
KERNEL=="hidraw*", SUBSYSTEM=="hidraw", ATTRS{idVendor}=="057e", ATTRS{idProduct}=="200e", MODE="0666"

KERNEL=="js0", SUBSYSTEM=="input", MODE="0666"

Refresh the udev rules:

sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger

Finally, install other dependencies:

pip3 install hid
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libhidapi-hidraw0

Note

If the bluetooth connection on your Ubuntu workstation is not working, simply buy a bluetooth dongle, such as this one, and plug it in.