amiro-blt / README.txt @ a8fc89f4
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AMiRo-BLT is the bootloader and flashing toolchain for the base version of the |
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Autonomous Mini Robot (AMiRo) [1]. It is based on OpenBLT developed by Feaser |
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(see <http://feaser.com/en/openblt.php>). |
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|
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Copyright (C) 2016..2017 Thomas Schöpping et al. |
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(a complete list of all authors is given below) |
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|
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This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify |
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it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by |
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the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at |
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your option) any later version. |
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|
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This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but |
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WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of |
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MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU |
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General Public License for more details. |
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|
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You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License |
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along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. |
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|
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This research/work was supported by the Cluster of Excellence |
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Cognitive Interaction Technology 'CITEC' (EXC 277) at Bielefeld |
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University, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). |
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|
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Authors: |
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- Thomas Schöpping <tschoepp[at]cit-ec.uni-bielefeld.de> |
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- Stefan Herbechtsmeier <sherbrec[at]cit-ec.uni-bielefeld.de> |
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- Marvin Barther |
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|
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References: |
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[1] S. Herbrechtsmeier, T. Korthals, T. Schopping and U. Rückert, "AMiRo: A |
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modular & customizable open-source mini robot platform," 2016 20th |
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International Conference on System Theory, Control and Computing (ICSTCC), |
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Sinaia, 2016, pp. 687-692. |
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################################################################################ |
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# # |
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# RRRRRRRR EEEEEEEE AAA DDDDDDDD MM MM EEEEEEEE # |
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# RR RR EE AA AA DD DD MMM MMM EE # |
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# RR RR EE AA AA DD DD MMMM MMMM EE # |
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# RRRRRRRR EEEEEE AA AA DD DD MM MMM MM EEEEEE # |
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# RR RR EE AAAAAAAAA DD DD MM MM EE # |
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# RR RR EE AA AA DD DD MM MM EE # |
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# RR RR EEEEEEEE AA AA DDDDDDDD MM MM EEEEEEEE # |
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# # |
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################################################################################ |
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|
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This file will help you to setup all required software on your system, compile |
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the source code, and use the tools and flash the bootloader software to the |
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AMiRo base modules. |
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|
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================================================================================ |
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|
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CONTENTS: |
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|
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1 Required software |
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1.1 Git |
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1.2 stm32flash |
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1.3 GCC ARM Embedded Toolchain |
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1.4 GNU Make |
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1.5 CMake |
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2 Recommended Software |
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3 Compiling the source code |
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3.1 target software |
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3.2 host software |
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================================================================================ |
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1 - REQUIRED SOFTWARE |
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--------------------- |
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|
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The only third party software required are stm32flash and GCC for ARM embedded |
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devices. While the latter is a compiler to build binaries that are compatible |
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with the microcontrollers (MCUs) of AMiRo, the former is used to write this data |
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to the hardware. |
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|
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1.1 - Git |
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--------- |
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|
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Since all main- and subprojects are available as Git repositories, installing a |
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recent version of the tool is mandatory. |
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1.2 - stm32flash |
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---------------- |
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This tool is required to flash the bootloader binaries to the microcontrollers. |
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Since it is included in this project as a submodule, you can just run the setup |
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script in the root directory: |
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>$ ./setup.sh |
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Follow the instructions to download the source code and compile the tool. The |
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resulting binary path is ./Host/Source/stm32flash/stm32flash. |
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The setup script does not install the tool to your system path, though, since |
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this usually requires root permissions. However, stm32flash provides a Makefile |
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with installation capabilities. Just Follow the instructions given in the file |
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./Host/Source/stm32flash/INSTALL. |
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1.3 - GCC ARM Embedded Toolchain |
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-------------------------------- |
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Various versions of the GCC for ARM embedded devices can be found at |
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<https://launchpad.net/gcc-arm-embedded>. For installation of the compiler |
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toolchain, please follow the instructions that can be found on the web page. |
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If you have access to the AMiRo-OS project as well, it is highly recommended |
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to use the setup application provided there. |
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If you are running a 64-bit operating system, you will have to install several |
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32-bit libraries in order to make the compiler work. The required packages are |
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libc6, libstdc++6, and libncurses5. You can run the following shell commands to |
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install the according 32-bit versions of the packages: |
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>$ sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 && sudo apt-get update |
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>$ sudo apt-get install libc6:i386 libstdc++6:i386 libncurses5:i386 |
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1.4 - GNU Make |
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-------------- |
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GNU Make usually comes as preinstalled tool on Ubuntu based operating systems. |
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If your system is missing GNU Make, it is recommended to install it from the |
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standard repositories since no special requirements (e.g. features of a very |
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recent version) are required. |
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1.5 - CMake |
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----------- |
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In order to build the SerialBoot host application, CMake version 2.8 or later is |
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required. If possible, it is recommended to instal it from the standard |
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repositories of your operating system. |
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2 - RECOMMENDED SOFTWARE |
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------------------------ |
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AMiRo-BLT provides support for the QtCreator IDE. In order to setup according |
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projects, use the ./setup.sh script and follow the instructions. It will |
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automatically generate the required files and you can import the projects by |
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opening the .creator files with Qtcreator IDE. |
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3 - COMPILING THE SOURCE CODE |
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----------------------------- |
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The AMiRo-BLT project is separated into two major parts: target- and host- |
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related software. The former comprises the bootloaders for the three base |
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modules of the AMiRo. The latter is the SerialBoot tool, which can be used to |
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flash further binaries (e.g. a complex operating system) to the microcontrollers |
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without connecting to the module directly (data is passed through via CAN bus). |
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Since the programming connector of the lowermost AMiRo module is the only one |
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accessible when the robot is fully set up, this enables to update the firmware |
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even for other modules. |
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3.1 - target software |
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--------------------- |
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In the ./Target/Demo/ directory there are three subfolders, one for each AMiRo |
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base module. Within each of these is an additional Boot/ folder |
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(./Target/Demo/<device>/Boot/), which contains a makefile. Each bootloader can |
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be compiled by executing 'make' in these directories. |
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In order to flash the bootloader to a microcontroller, you first have to set |
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full read and write permissions to the USB ports of your system. You can do so |
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by executing the following command: |
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>$ sudo echo 'KERNEL=="ttyUSB[0-9]*",NAME="tts/USB%n",SYMLINK+="%k",MODE="0666"' > /etc/udev/rules.d/50-ttyusb.rules |
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Now connect the module you want to flash directly to your system (note that |
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indirect flashing is not possible for the bootloader itself) and run the command |
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>$ make flash |
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If the procedure was not successful, the following hints might help: |
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- Could the makefile execute the stm32flash tool? |
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- Are the permissions for USB ports set correctly? |
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- Are there any other applications using the serial connection? |
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- Is the AMiRo module connected to your system? |
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- Is the AMiRo module powered up? |
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ATTENTION: |
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Never flash a bootloader to the wrong module! Doing so might cause severe errors |
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and damage the robot. |
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3.2 - host software |
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------------------- |
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The SerialBoot tool can be built by using cmake. The according CMakeLists.txt |
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file can be found in the ./Host/Source/SerialBoot/ directory. To ensure |
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compatibility with other software (e.g. AMiRo-OS) it is higly recommended to use |
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the provided ./setup.sh script to build SerialBoot. In the end the binary path |
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should be ./Host/Source/SerialBoot/build/SerialBoot. |
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================================================================================ |