Connecting and Testing the Development Workstation

Prerequisites

Baxter Research Robot has been set up - instructions here.
The Development Workstation has been set up with Ubuntu 10.04LTS and ROS Electric - instructions here
The following list of hardware is available
- 1 Ethernet switch
- 2 Ethernet cables

User can ping Baxter from a connected Development Workstation - validating network connectivity
User can execute this command from a connected Development Workstation - validating that ROS messages work across the network connection

$ rostopic echo /rosout

Physically connect Baxter to the Developer Workstation
- Connect power to the ethernet switch
- Connect Baxter to a port on the ethernet switch with an ethernet cable
- Connect the Developer Machine to the ethernet switch with a second ethernet cable

Additional network setup details can be found here

Set up the ROS environment

$ source /opt/ros/electric/setup.sh
Add the IP address of the robot (refered to as the [Baxter IP Address] on this page) to /etc/hosts on the Development Workstation. The IP Address of the robot will be provided at the time of shipment.
Ping the robot from the development workstation to check for connectivity.

$ ping [Baxter IP Address]
Set the ROS_MASTER_URI environment variable

$ export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://<Baxter IP Address>:11311
List rostopics using the rostopic command

$ rostopic list
Show output on /rosout topic

$ rostopic echo /rosout