Hi! Yesterday was the start of the coding period which will continue for another 12 weeks. The Community Bonding period gave me enough time to install the required packages. This post explains those packages in minimal detail.

Project Components

My work would heavily require the use of -

1. ROS (Robot Operating System) to work with the Husky Rover

ROS is the meta-operating system which is very popular with roboticists. My future posts would describe my work with ROS and the concepts that I am using, in detail.

More specifically, I am working with ROS Indigo Igloo, which is a LTS (Long-term support) release

2. Gazebo Simulation environment to test the programs written to drive the Husky around

I am working with Gazebo version 2.2.3.

3. Tango-Controls Supervisory Control and Data Acquistion system

If data from different devices is the blood of ERAS, then Tango is the circulatory system. It does an excellent job of handling multiple devices (Motivity treadmill, Kinect Sensors, Blender Game Engine Instances, and in my case a ROS machine with Husky interfaces)

4. Blender Game Engine to model the standalone V-ERAS application.

The V-ERAS simulation of the spacecraft looks like this -

In the second phase of the project, I will be involved in real-time streaming of rover stereo camera feed to the displays in the V-ERAS simulation.

5. Python (of course :D )

6. Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty Tahr)

ROS Indigo offers complete support for this version of Ubuntu.

Screenshots

To Python-ify my experience even further, I installed Terminator, a Python-based program which makes terminal arrangement as flexible as humanly possible on Linux.

Working with ROS requires opening up a lot of terminal and Terminator makes this hassle-free.

Take a look for yourselves -

I am using different text editors for different purposes.

While working with Markdown and reStructuredText, I use Sublime Text.

Vim is my editor of choice for all things Python. I have been using it for open-source development since last year.

So, with this I wrap up this setup post.

Just for kicks, this is what my desktop looks like -

I must admit it keeps me motivated to design software for Mars missions. Just in case you’re wondering, the theme I use is the MacBuntu theme. It is pretty distraction-free.

To Coding and beyond!

Why write a post about an indistinguishable dorm room?

Gandhi 276 (Coordinates - 28.360874 N, 75.588507 E) ushers in a profuse stream of consciousness (and subconsciousness) for me.

I made it my home for two long academic years (that is four semesters (2013-2015) and a summer (2015).

Today (24 June, 2015), I am leaving it as I complete the final phase of packing up the lightweight items. Incidentally, today is also the date when I took my BITSAT exam in 2012. It also happily collides with the end of the community bonding period and the start of the coding period for GSoC which I explained in this post.

How I got this room?

Out of pure whim. BITS Pilani allows students to choose their wings and rooms. The final wings are decided by a lottery system in cases of a collision. So yes, our wing (the ‘ghot’ wing) got the upper back wing, and consequently I got this room.

About Gandhi 276

Experiences with GN-276

I stepped foot in this room on July 31, 2013. The previous room occupant, U.R. Lohi was the president of BITS Pilani Student Union for the 2012-2013 session. So in a way, I got the president’s room, out of pure whim. A cool and cringey bragging right to start with.

First Semester, 2013

• Best time of my CS program
• Gel in with the new wingmates (called wingies at BITS). Sidenote: the wing was called the “ghot” wing.
• The distraction-free semester, even with the new laptop
• Programmed extensively in Java, Prolog, C
• The last semester with an advanced Mathematics course, which I enjoyed (Differential Equations)
• Worked hard as the Technical Team member of BITSEmbryo
• Still a Windows user
• The start of my Robotics career

Second Semester, 2014

• The lowest point of my CS program
• Watched more than 500 films
• Avid Linux user (full-time Archer)
• Active BITS Firefox Community member. Spent a lot of time to motivate people to use Free software

First Semester, 2014

• The room gets a revamp.
• The pleasant research labs phase of my undergrad life. I also made some friends for life during this time.
• The start of my Wearable and Pervasive Computing career
• Extensive use of Arduino and Raspberry Pi
• Positive change in attitude, thanks to new friends
• Network Programming phase of life
• My first Ping of Death to Shardul (on the same wing subnet)
• The start of internship applications
• Embracing rejections

Second Semester, 2015

• The most stressful period of my life
• Embracing even more rejections
• Compiler Design semester
• Selection in the MIT Media Lab Design Innovation Workshop 2015
• Made some awesome friends from all over India(and the world)
• Lost some awesome friends for stupid reasons
• Working for the Google Summer of Code as last respite
• Project proposal getting selected for GSoC 2015
• Juggling with Compilers, Robotics work, Computer Networks lab Teaching Assistantship, GSoC work, internship applications, Typeracing, Films
• The semester when I was out of spacetime

Summer 2015

• A hotchpotch of discipline and dust
• Dusty times with the wing being cleaned out
• Improved circadian rhythms and exercise
• The “Getting shit done” phase

The common denominator in all these eventful times - Gandhi 276.

Thank You Gandhi 276.

For standing by me. For becoming a home which I’d go on to endear more than my family home. For sheltering me from the sweltering heat and the frosty chills of this sleepy university town. I learnt to touchtype as fast as 100 words per minute in this room. My first Git commit. My first pull request. My first blog post. Thank you room for all the experiences, sicknesses, treatments, soporific ambiences, all-nighters, Gtalk & IRC sessions, and above all - a nurturing environment where I grew up as a Computer Scientist.

Closing remarks

This has been a long farewell post. And this experience wouldn’t have been this awesome if not for the people around this room - Karan, Kunal, Gaurav, Sai Charan, Shreyansh, Priyank, Girish. I wish all the best in life and beyond to the future and past occupants of this room.

“May the GN276 Force be with you!”

So long and thanks for all the fish.