private-networking.md

  100.89.2.122 desktop-1 \       / robot-1 100.89.2.122
                          \     /
  100.99.32.12 desktop-2 - - - - - robot-2 100.99.31.234
                           /    \
  100.88.77.234 desktop-3 /      \ robot-3 100.86.232.111

Introduction

To facilitate lab@home, we have created a private network for connect robots and computers together using Tailscale. This private network allows anyone to connect to any robots on the network around the world.

Setup robot for private networking

Requirement

• Raspberry Pi

• Authkey (like this tskey-123abc456)

• Running either Raspbian 10, Ubuntu 18.04, or Ubuntu 20.04

Installation

• Clone the repo: https://github.com/pitosalas/tb3-ros.git

• cd tb3-ros/clients

chmod +x pi_connect.sh

# Run the script with the authkey
sudo ./pi_connect.sh tskey-123abc456

# On successful connect, you should see this
Connected. IP address: 100.xx.xxx.xxx

Once the robot is successfully connected to the network, you can try to reach it via cloud desktop

ssh pi@100.xx.xxx.xxx

Setup robot remote control

To control a specific robot, you need to connect to its ROS master.

On your robot, edit ~/.bashrc, add or replace the following lines:

# Replace with the robot's Tailscale IP
export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://100.xx.xxx.xxx:11311/
export ROS_IP=100.xx.xxx.xxx

On your cloud desktop (or your computer if you are not using cloud desktop), edit ~/.bashrc, add or replace with the following lines:

# Replace with the robot's Tailscale IP
export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://100.xx.xxx.xxx:11311/
# Replace with the cloud desktop's IP
export ROS_IP=172.xx.xxx.xxx

Once this is setup, test the connectivity with

rostopic list

Setup non cloud desktop for private networking

You can still connect to the private network without using cloud desktop. However, right now we have limited support for OS.

Officially supported

• Ubuntu 18.04

• Ubuntu 20.04

Unofficially supported

• MacOS

• Check this list

Officially supported installation

• Clone the repo: https://github.com/pitosalas/tb3-ros.git

• cd tb3-ros/clients

chmod +x pi_connect.sh

# Run the script with the authkey
sudo ./pi_connect.sh tskey-123abc456

# On successful connect, you should see this
Connected. IP address: 100.xx.xxx.xxx

To connect to the network after every reboot, just do

sudo ./pi_connect.sh tskey-123abc456

Unofficially supported installation

MacOS

• Download and Install Tailscale from App Store

• Open the App, DO NOT login

With your terminal do,

$(ps -xo comm | grep MacOS/Tailscale$) up --authkey=tskey-123abc456 --accept-routes

Everything else

Follow the instructions for installing for your OS here.

Once you have Tailscale installed, you can start it with the following command

sudo tailscale up --authkey=tskey-123abc456 --accept-routes