[ros-users] Use cases for ROS on ARM based computers

[Soo-Hyun Yoo]

Hi Tully,

I've been using ROS on Arch for a while now, and recently on the
ODROID-X, which has a 1.4 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 on board. I will
be trying the same install on the ODROID-X2 next week, but I suspect
there will be no differences.

Having had to compile ROS from source for Arch, I found it fairly
straightforward to install Arch on the ODROID by following the same
ROS-on-Arch installation directions. The only nuisance was the
occasional system package that didn't officially support armv7h as an
architecture (where I had to implement some hacks) and making sure
that the compiler got the -mfloat-abi=hard flag where appropriate.

I (as part of a larger team) plan to use the ODROID-X2s for autonomous
indoor navigation of quadrotors. Being able to install ROS on ARM
boards without having to compile from source would be immensely
helpful!

Soo-Hyun Yoo
Autonomous Aerial Robotics Team
Oregon State University

On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 1:10 PM, Tully Foote <tfoote at willowgarage.com> wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
>
> There has been quite a bit of interest in running ROS on ARM architecture
> processors. I know of many people using ROS on ARM processors.  There is now
> instructions for installing ROS on the Raspberry Pi [1] [2] form source.
> Thanks to everyone who's contributed to those installation instructions.
>
> There are lots of additional steps possible for the Raspberry Pi
> specifically, such as extending the debian package buiding infrastructure to
> support armhf or developing good instructions for cross compiling.
> (Compiling natively is slow but simpler.)
>
> Likewise I'm aware of several people using ROS on other ARM based platforms
> such as Gumstix, BeagleBoards and PandaBoards as well as others.
>
> With the number of people using ROS on these processors it would be great to
> share with the community what people are working on and where they would
> like to see things go forward.
>
> This might develop into it's own SIG going forward or potentially join the
> embedded SIG. [3]
>
> So if anyone is using ROS on ARM or would like to do so.  Please share your
> use case(s) and hopefully we can get a group of people together to
> collaborate to build up support for ROS on ARM.
>
> Tully
>
> [1] http://www.ros.org/wiki/groovy/Installation/Raspbian/Source
> [2] http://ros.org/wiki/ROSberryPi/Setting%20up%20ROS%20on%20RaspberryPi
> [3] http://www.ros.org/wiki/sig/Embedded
>
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