micro-ROS for STM32CubeMX/IDE

This tool aims to ease the micro-ROS integration in a STM32CubeMX/IDE project.

• micro-ROS for STM32CubeMX/IDE
  • Middlewares available
  • Using this package with STM32CubeMX
  • Using this package with STM32CubeIDE
    • Windows 11 (Community Contributed)
  • Transport configuration
    • U(S)ART with DMA
    • U(S)ART with Interrupts
    • USB CDC
    • UDP
  • Customizing the micro-ROS library
  • Adding custom packages
  • Purpose of the Project
  • License
  • Known Issues/Limitations

Middlewares available

This package support the usage of micro-ROS on top of two different middlewares:

• eProsima Micro XRCE-DDS: the default micro-ROS middleware.
• embeddedRTPS: an experimental implementation of a RTPS middleware compatible with ROS 2. Instructions on how to use it available here.

Using this package with STM32CubeMX

1. Clone this repository in your STM32CubeMX project folder. A sample project can be generated with the provided sample_project.ioc.

2. Make sure that your STM32CubeMX project is using a Makefile toolchain under Project Manager -> Project

3. Make sure that if you are using FreeRTOS, the micro-ROS task has more than 10 kB of stack: Detail

4. Configure the transport interface on the STM32CubeMX project, check the Transport configuration section for instructions on the custom transports provided.

5. Modify the generated Makefile to include the following code before the build the application section:

   #######################################
   # micro-ROS addons
   #######################################
   LDFLAGS += micro_ros_stm32cubemx_utils/microros_static_library/libmicroros/libmicroros.a
   C_INCLUDES += -Imicro_ros_stm32cubemx_utils/microros_static_library/libmicroros/microros_include
   
   # Add micro-ROS utils
   C_SOURCES += micro_ros_stm32cubemx_utils/extra_sources/custom_memory_manager.c
   C_SOURCES += micro_ros_stm32cubemx_utils/extra_sources/microros_allocators.c
   C_SOURCES += micro_ros_stm32cubemx_utils/extra_sources/microros_time.c
   
   # Set here the custom transport implementation
   C_SOURCES += micro_ros_stm32cubemx_utils/extra_sources/microros_transports/dma_transport.c
   
   print_cflags:
      @echo $(CFLAGS)

6. Execute the static library generation tool. Compiler flags will retrieved automatically from your Makefile and user will be prompted to check if they are correct.

   docker pull microros/micro_ros_static_library_builder:iron
   docker run -it --rm -v $(pwd):/project --env MICROROS_LIBRARY_FOLDER=micro_ros_stm32cubemx_utils/microros_static_library microros/micro_ros_static_library_builder:iron

7. Modify your main.c to use micro-ROS. An example application can be found in sample_main.c.

8. Continue your usual workflow building your project and flashing the binary:

   make -j$(nproc)

Using this package with STM32CubeIDE

micro-ROS can be used with SMT32CubeIDE following these steps:

1. Clone this repository in your STM32CubeIDE project folder

2. Go to Project -> Properties -> C/C++ Build -> Settings -> Build Steps Tab and in Pre-build steps add:

   docker pull microros/micro_ros_static_library_builder:iron && docker run --rm -v ${workspace_loc:/${ProjName}}:/project --env MICROROS_LIBRARY_FOLDER=micro_ros_stm32cubemx_utils/microros_static_library_ide microros/micro_ros_static_library_builder:iron

3. Add micro-ROS include directory. In Project -> Properties -> C/C++ Build -> Settings -> Tool Settings Tab -> MCU GCC Compiler -> Include paths add micro_ros_stm32cubemx_utils/microros_static_library_ide/libmicroros/include

4. Add the micro-ROS precompiled library. In Project -> Settings -> C/C++ Build -> Settings -> MCU GCC Linker -> Libraries

   • add <ABSOLUTE_PATH_TO>/micro_ros_stm32cubemx_utils/microros_static_library_ide/libmicroros in Library search path (-L)
   • add microros in Libraries (-l)

5. Add the following source code files to your project, dragging them to source folder:

   • extra_sources/microros_time.c
   • extra_sources/microros_allocators.c
   • extra_sources/custom_memory_manager.c
   • extra_sources/microros_transports/dma_transport.c or your transport selection.

6. Make sure that if you are using FreeRTOS, the micro-ROS task has more than 10 kB of stack: Detail

7. Configure the transport interface on the STM32CubeMX project, check the Transport configuration section for instructions on the custom transports provided.

8. Build and run your project

Windows 11 (Community Contributed)

micro-ROS can be used with SMT32CubeIDE in Windows 11 OS, following these steps:

1. Install Docker Desktop and open it
2. Clone this repository in your STM32CubeIDE project folder
3. Open a terminal in the project folder and run:

   docker pull microros/micro_ros_static_library_builder:humble
   docker run --rm -v <ABSOLUTE_PATH_TO_PROJECT>:/project --env MICROROS_LIBRARY_FOLDER=micro_ros_stm32cubemx_utils/microros_static_library_ide microros/micro_ros_static_library_builder:humble

Follow steps 4 to 8. Noticed that thist steps where tested with ROS 2 Humble, but should work on any distribution. micro-ROS Agent could be build and run in Ubuntu using WSL.

Transport configuration

Available transport for this platform are:

U(S)ART with DMA

Steps to configure:

• Enable U(S)ART in your STM32CubeMX
• For the selected USART, enable DMA for Tx and Rx under DMA Settings
• Set the DMA priotity to Very High for Tx and Rx
• Set the DMA mode to Circular for Rx: Detail
• For the selected, enable global interrupt under NVIC Settings: Detail

U(S)ART with Interrupts

Steps to configure:

• Enable U(S)ART in your STM32CubeMX
• For the selected USART, enable global interrupt under NVIC Settings: Detail

USB CDC

Steps to configure:

• Enable the USB in your STM32CubeMX Connectivity tab.

• Select the Communication Device Class (Virtual Port Com) mode on the Middleware -> USB_DEVICE configuration.

  Note: The micro-ROS transport will override the autogenerated USB_DEVICE/App/usbd_cdc_if.c methods.

UDP

Steps to configure:

• Enable Ethernet in your STM32CubeMX/IDE Connectivity tab.

• Enable LwIP in your STM32CubeMX/IDE Middleware tab.

• Make sure that LwIP has the following configuration:

  Platform Setting according to your own board
  LwIP -> General Settings -> LWIP_DHCP -> Disabled
  LwIP -> General Settings -> IP Address Settings (Set here the board address and mask)
  LwIP -> General Settings -> LWIP UDP -> Enabled
  LwIP -> General Settings -> Procols Options -> MEMP_NUM_UDP_PCB -> 15
  LwIP -> Key Options -> LWIP_SO_RCVTIMEO -> Enable
  

Note: Ensure your board and Agent are within the same LAN. The default port is 8888. You can modify it in udp_transport.c.If you are using a board from the STM32H7 series, please set up the MPU correctly.

• Use sample_main_udp.c as a reference for writing your application code.

• Start the micro-ROS Agent with the following arguments:

  ros2 run micro_ros_agent micro_ros_agent udp4 --port 8888 -v 6
  

Customizing the micro-ROS library

All the micro-ROS configuration can be done in colcon.meta file before step 3. You can find detailed information about how to tune the static memory usage of the library in the Middleware Configuration tutorial.

Adding custom packages

Note that folders added to microros_static_library/library_generation/extra_packages/ and entries added to /microros_static_library/library_generation/extra_packages/extra_packages.repos will be taken into account by this build system.

Purpose of the Project

This software is not ready for production use. It has neither been developed nor tested for a specific use case. However, the license conditions of the applicable Open Source licenses allow you to adapt the software to your needs. Before using it in a safety relevant setting, make sure that the software fulfills your requirements and adjust it according to any applicable safety standards, e.g., ISO 26262.

License

This repository is open-sourced under the Apache-2.0 license. See the LICENSE file for details.

For a list of other open-source components included in this repository, see the file 3rd-party-licenses.txt.

Known Issues/Limitations

There are no known limitations.