Fetch Tools

This package contains the fetch utility to make development easier. For full details of command usage and arguments, run fetch -h and fetch COMMAND -h. It also adds useful aliases for connecting to robots. Below summarizes installation and common usage.

Intended Workflow

This tool was written to help make it easier to develop code and switch between robots with ease. It works by inferring what robot you’re working on from $ROS_MASTER_URI and automating common tasks such as account creation, code syncing, and running commands. It assumes that you always edit code in your ROS Workspace and then push a copy of the workspace to the robot afterwards, so that you can run it. This keeps all code that you are developing on your computer in case someone takes the robot.

Example Workflow

# Start working on freight 0 for the first time
ufr 0
fetch create-account --fullname "Not A. Robot"
fetch push --install-deps --build
fetch run "roslaunch my_awesome_package do_stuff.launch"
# Edit code to fix a bug
fetch push --build "--pkg my_awesome_package"
fetch run "roslaunch my_awesome_package do_stuff.launch"
# Switch over to freight 8, since someone kidnapped freight 0
ufr 8
fetch create-account --fullname "Not A. Robot"
fetch push --install-deps --build
fetch run "roslaunch my_awesome_package do_stuff.launch"

Installation

To install run, checkout the fetchrobotics/sandbox repo and run:

sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-fetch-tools

Afterwards, restart your terminal or run source $(rospack find fetch_tools)/setup.bash.

Common Arguments

Robot

Most operations interact with a robot, in this case they take an optional --robot argument. If the robot parameter is passed in using --robot, that is the value used. If not, the parameter defaults to the robot pointed at by $ROS_MASTER_URI. To set the default value, add the line export FETCH_ROBOT=myrobot to your .bashrc file.

If the robot is not on the DNS (i.e. pinging the robot name does not work), you can add .local to the parameter, e.g. fetch4.local, and communication with the robot will work via zeroconf (avahi).

Workspace

Some operations interact with a workspace, in this case take an optional --workspace argument. If the a parameter is passed in that value is used. If not, the parameter defaults to ~/$ROS_DISTRO. To set the default value, add the line export FETCH_WORKSPACE=/path/to/my/workspace to your .bashrc file. By default, the remote workspace is assumed to match your local workspace. If not, you can use either the --remote-workspace argument or the FETCH_REMOTE_WORKSPACE environment variable to change it.

User

Most operations interact with a robot, in this case they often effect a particular user on that robot, so they take an optional --user argument. If the robot parameter is passed in using --user, that is the value used. If not, the parameter defaults to $USER. To set the default value, add the line export FETCH_USER=myuser to your .bashrc file.

fetch Commands

fetch create-account

To create an account:

fetch create-account

To create an account with another username:

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