Statistics
| Branch: | Tag: | Revision:

amiro-blt / README.txt @ a8fc89f4

History | View | Annotate | Download (7.979 KB)

1
AMiRo-BLT is the bootloader and flashing toolchain for the base version of the
2
Autonomous Mini Robot (AMiRo) [1]. It is based on OpenBLT developed by Feaser
3
(see <http://feaser.com/en/openblt.php>).
4

    
5
Copyright (C) 2016..2017  Thomas Schöpping et al.
6
(a complete list of all authors is given below)
7

    
8
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
9
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
10
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at
11
your option) any later version.
12

    
13
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
14
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
15
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
16
General Public License for more details.
17

    
18
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
19
along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
20

    
21
This research/work was supported by the Cluster of Excellence
22
Cognitive Interaction Technology 'CITEC' (EXC 277) at Bielefeld
23
University, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
24

    
25
Authors:
26
 - Thomas Schöpping        <tschoepp[at]cit-ec.uni-bielefeld.de>
27
 - Stefan Herbechtsmeier   <sherbrec[at]cit-ec.uni-bielefeld.de>
28
 - Marvin Barther
29

    
30
References:
31
 [1] S. Herbrechtsmeier, T. Korthals, T. Schopping and U. Rückert, "AMiRo: A
32
     modular & customizable open-source mini robot platform," 2016 20th
33
     International Conference on System Theory, Control and Computing (ICSTCC),
34
     Sinaia, 2016, pp. 687-692.
35

    
36

    
37

    
38
################################################################################
39
#                                                                              #
40
#        RRRRRRRR   EEEEEEEE     AAA     DDDDDDDD   MM     MM  EEEEEEEE        #
41
#        RR     RR  EE          AA AA    DD     DD  MMM   MMM  EE              #
42
#        RR     RR  EE         AA   AA   DD     DD  MMMM MMMM  EE              #
43
#        RRRRRRRR   EEEEEE    AA     AA  DD     DD  MM MMM MM  EEEEEE          #
44
#        RR   RR    EE        AAAAAAAAA  DD     DD  MM     MM  EE              #
45
#        RR    RR   EE        AA     AA  DD     DD  MM     MM  EE              #
46
#        RR     RR  EEEEEEEE  AA     AA  DDDDDDDD   MM     MM  EEEEEEEE        #
47
#                                                                              #
48
################################################################################
49

    
50
This file will help you to setup all required software on your system, compile
51
the source code, and use the tools and flash the bootloader software to the
52
AMiRo base modules.
53

    
54
================================================================================
55

    
56
CONTENTS:
57

    
58
  1  Required software
59
    1.1  Git
60
    1.2  stm32flash
61
    1.3  GCC ARM Embedded Toolchain
62
    1.4  GNU Make
63
    1.5  CMake
64
  2  Recommended Software
65
  3  Compiling the source code
66
    3.1  target software
67
    3.2  host software
68

    
69
================================================================================
70

    
71

    
72

    
73
1 - REQUIRED SOFTWARE
74
---------------------
75

    
76
The only third party software required are stm32flash and GCC for ARM embedded
77
devices. While the latter is a compiler to build binaries that are compatible
78
with the microcontrollers (MCUs) of AMiRo, the former is used to write this data
79
to the hardware.
80

    
81

    
82
1.1 - Git
83
---------
84

    
85
Since all main- and subprojects are available as Git repositories, installing a
86
recent version of the tool is mandatory.
87

    
88

    
89
1.2 - stm32flash
90
----------------
91

    
92
This tool is required to flash the bootloader binaries to the microcontrollers.
93
Since it is included in this project as a submodule, you can just run the setup
94
script in the root directory:
95
  >$ ./setup.sh
96
Follow the instructions to download the source code and compile the tool. The
97
resulting binary path is ./Host/Source/stm32flash/stm32flash.
98

    
99
The setup script does not install the tool to your system path, though, since
100
this usually requires root permissions. However, stm32flash provides a Makefile
101
with installation capabilities. Just Follow the instructions given in the file
102
./Host/Source/stm32flash/INSTALL.
103

    
104

    
105
1.3 - GCC ARM Embedded Toolchain
106
--------------------------------
107

    
108
Various versions of the GCC for ARM embedded devices can be found at
109
<https://launchpad.net/gcc-arm-embedded>. For installation of the compiler
110
toolchain, please follow the instructions that can be found on the web page.
111
If you have access to the AMiRo-OS project as well, it is highly recommended
112
to use the setup application provided there.
113

    
114
If you are running a 64-bit operating system, you will have to install several
115
32-bit libraries in order to make the compiler work. The required packages are
116
libc6, libstdc++6, and libncurses5. You can run the following shell commands to
117
install the according 32-bit versions of the packages:
118
  >$ sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 && sudo apt-get update
119
  >$ sudo apt-get install libc6:i386 libstdc++6:i386 libncurses5:i386
120

    
121

    
122
1.4 - GNU Make
123
--------------
124

    
125
GNU Make usually comes as preinstalled tool on Ubuntu based operating systems.
126
If your system is missing GNU Make, it is recommended to install it from the
127
standard repositories since no special requirements (e.g. features of a very
128
recent version) are required.
129

    
130

    
131
1.5 - CMake
132
-----------
133

    
134
In order to build the SerialBoot host application, CMake version 2.8 or later is
135
required. If possible, it is recommended to instal it from the standard
136
repositories of your operating system.
137

    
138

    
139

    
140
2 - RECOMMENDED SOFTWARE
141
------------------------
142

    
143
AMiRo-BLT provides support for the QtCreator IDE. In order to setup according
144
projects, use the ./setup.sh script and follow the instructions. It will
145
automatically generate the required files and you can import the projects by
146
opening the .creator files with Qtcreator IDE.
147

    
148

    
149

    
150
3 - COMPILING THE SOURCE CODE
151
-----------------------------
152

    
153
The AMiRo-BLT project is separated into two major parts: target- and host-
154
related software. The former comprises the bootloaders for the three base
155
modules of the AMiRo. The latter is the SerialBoot tool, which can be used to
156
flash further binaries (e.g. a complex operating system) to the microcontrollers
157
without connecting to the module directly (data is passed through via CAN bus).
158
Since the programming connector of the lowermost AMiRo module is the only one
159
accessible when the robot is fully set up, this enables to update the firmware
160
even for other modules.
161

    
162

    
163
3.1 - target software
164
---------------------
165

    
166
In the ./Target/Demo/ directory there are three subfolders, one for each AMiRo
167
base module. Within each of these is an additional Boot/ folder
168
(./Target/Demo/<device>/Boot/), which contains a makefile. Each bootloader can
169
be compiled by executing 'make' in these directories.
170

    
171
In order to flash the bootloader to a microcontroller, you first have to set
172
full read and write permissions to the USB ports of your system. You can do so
173
by executing the following command:
174
  >$ sudo echo 'KERNEL=="ttyUSB[0-9]*",NAME="tts/USB%n",SYMLINK+="%k",MODE="0666"' > /etc/udev/rules.d/50-ttyusb.rules
175
Now connect the module you want to flash directly to your system (note that
176
indirect flashing is not possible for the bootloader itself) and run the command
177
  >$ make flash
178
If the procedure was not successful, the following hints might help:
179
  - Could the makefile execute the stm32flash tool?
180
  - Are the permissions for USB ports set correctly?
181
  - Are there any other applications using the serial connection?
182
  - Is the AMiRo module connected to your system?
183
  - Is the AMiRo module powered up?
184

    
185
ATTENTION:
186
Never flash a bootloader to the wrong module! Doing so might cause severe errors
187
and damage the robot.
188

    
189

    
190
3.2 - host software
191
-------------------
192

    
193
The SerialBoot tool can be built by using cmake. The according CMakeLists.txt
194
file can be found in the ./Host/Source/SerialBoot/ directory. To ensure
195
compatibility with other software (e.g. AMiRo-OS) it is higly recommended to use
196
the provided ./setup.sh script to build SerialBoot. In the end the binary path
197
should be ./Host/Source/SerialBoot/build/SerialBoot.
198

    
199
================================================================================