Water Linked DVL A50 - ROS 2 Package

A ROS 2 package for the Water Linked DVL A50.

Water Linked A50 is, by far, the world's smallest commercially available Doppler Velocity Log. With the record-breaking 5 cm min altitude measurability, the A50 is extremely useful for working with tools close to the seabed.

Prerequisites

The package has been tested with ROS 2 Humble.

The package is coded in Python 3 for easier readability, as such you would need to have Python 3 installed. Preferably Python 3.10.

Installation

Assuming you created your ROS 2 workspace at the default location ('/ros2_ws/'), and have git installed, the below steps should work:

1. install the Water Linked python library. In a directory of your choice:

git clone git@github.com:waterlinked/dvl-python.git
cd dvl-python/serial/
pip3 install -e .

2. clone and build the custom messages and driver software

cd ~/ros2_ws/src
git clone -b ros2_humble git@github.com:RozaGkliva/dvl-a50-ros-driver.git
cd ~/ros2_ws
colcon build --packages-select waterlinked_a50_interfaces waterlinked_a50_ros_driver

Usage

The following applies to serial connection.

Find the DVLs serial port (e.g., '/dev/ttyUSB0'). Once that's done, the package and it's components can be run by following these steps:

To run the publisher that listens to the TCP port and sends the data to ROS

ros2 run waterlinked_a50_ros_driver dvl_serial_publisher serial_port:='/dev/ttyUSB0'

where the serial port should be replaced by the port of the DVL.