Team R3 has developed a script to automatically set your ROS_IP environment variable and to detect an online robot using ping and set your ROS_MASTER_URI environment variable (assumes a static IP for your robot). If your robot is not online your own ROS_IP will be used in your ROS_MASTER_URI. To use this script run 'source ~/set_robot_as_ROS_mas…

set_robot_as_ROS_master.sh

#!/bin/bash

# Get my IP
MY_IP=$(hostname -I | grep 192.168.137 | cut -f1 -d' ')
exit_status=$?
if [ $exit_status -eq 1 ]; then
    echo "ERROR: you do not have an IP on the robot network (192.168.137.x). Please set one. Aborting..."
    return 1
fi

# Check for online robots or default to localhost
echo -n "Searching for available robots"
ROBOT1=192.168.137.212
ROBOT2=192.168.137.213

# Ping robots
ping -c1 -W1 -q $ROBOT1 > /dev/null 2>&1
ROBOT1_UP=$?
echo -n "." # progress indication
ping -c1 -W1 -q $ROBOT2 > /dev/null 2>&1
ROBOT2_UP=$?
echo -n "." # progress indication

# Descision tree: based on ping, use IP of ROBOT1 or ROBOT2 or localhost or let the user pick between ROBOT1 and ROBOT2 if they're both available
if [ $ROBOT1_UP -eq 0 ] && [ $ROBOT2_UP -eq 0 ]; then
  echo "Detected both ROBOT1 and ROBOT2 are ONLINE."
  echo "Please pick (1) or (2)."
  read -p "Use ROBOT1 or ROBOT2?: " USER_PICK
  if [ $USER_PICK -eq 1 ]; then
    MASTER_PICK=$ROBOT1
  elif [ $USER_PICK -eq 2 ]; then
    MASTER_PICK=$ROBOT2
  fi
elif [ $ROBOT1_UP -eq 0 ]; then
  MASTER_PICK=$ROBOT1
elif [ $ROBOT2_UP -eq 0 ]; then
  MASTER_PICK=$ROBOT2
else
  MASTER_PICK=$MY_IP
fi

echo "Setting your ROS_IP to $MY_IP and ROS_MASTER to $MASTER_PICK!"
export ROS_IP=$MY_IP
export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://$MASTER_PICK:11311/