Companion Computers ​

Hardware ​

Required materials

• Raspberry Pi
  • Rpi 4 Model B 8GB RAM
  • Power supply: Raspberry Pi 15W USB-C Power Supply
• PC with microSD card slot
• MicroSD card
  • SanDisk 64GB Ultra MicroSDXC

Software ​

• Install the Raspberry Pi Imager here.

• Install the VNC Viewer here.

Imaging in Headless Mode ​

• Insert the microSD card into the PC
• Open the Raspberry Pi Imager
  • Select the Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit) as the Operating System
  • Select the microSD card as the Storage

• Click on the gear icon in the bottom right hand corner to access the Advanced options
  • Select Set hostname: raspberrypi.local
  • Select Enable SSH and Use password authentication
  • Select Set username and password
    • Type the username and password of your choice
  • Select Configure wireless LAN
    • Type your wifi network name as the SSID and your wifi network password as the Password
    • Find your country’s two-letter country code
  • Click Save

• Now, Click Write

OSAVC ​

• Connect the OSAVC and PICkit3 Debugger to your PC
• Load TestHarness.X’s code onto the OSAVC
  • Open the TestHarness.X folder
  • Click Make and Program Device

Raspberry Pi 4 ​

• Insert the microSD card into the Raspberry Pi 4
• Connect the micro-USB port of the OSAVC to the USB port of the Raspberry Pi 4
• Power the Raspberry Pi 4 using the USB-C port with the power supply
• Open an SSH tunnel from your PC to the Raspberry Pi 4 by typing ssh [username]@[hostname].local in your PC terminal
  • sudo raspi-config
  • Select 5 Interfacing Options
  • Select P3 VNC
  • Click Yes to enabling the VNC server
  • Save your changes
• Open VNC Viewer and connect to [hostname].local at the top

• Install opencv and its dependencies
  • sudo apt-get update
  • sudo apt install python3-opencv
• Install pymavlink
  • sudo pip3 install pymavlink
• Install a serial terminal on the Raspberry Pi 4
  • sudo apt-get install minicom
  • minicom -b 115200 -o -D /dev/ttyUSB0
  • Press Ctrl-A Z to get the Mincom Command Summary dialog

• Press o to Configure Minicom
• Select Serial port setup

• press F to set F - Hardware Flow Control : No

• Save by pressing Enter and exit the Minicom Command Summary
• Click on the OSAVC’s reset button
• Press h to transmit a Mavlink heartbeat message from the OSAVC to the Raspberry Pi 4 and then press q to quit

• Create a new terminal tab, delete the Minicom terminal tab
• In the new terminal, enter

git clone https://github.com/uccross/open-source-autonomous-vehicle-controller.git

cd open-source-autonomous-vehicle-controller

cd companion-computer

sudo python3 OSAVC_web_server_rpi.py

• Open http://0.0.0.0:80/ in Chromium by right clicking the link and clicking Open URL.

• A webpage like this should appear

• Click the Connect Mav button
  • The button should turn red
  • The terminal should output target_system 1, target component 0

• Finally, click the Connected button again, and the MAVstatus should become Connected