raspbot_v2

ROS 2 robot platform based on the Yahboom Raspbot V2. Multiple services run as Docker containers, coordinated by Docker Compose.

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Sub-projects

Directory	Description
robot/	Differential-drive motor control, pan/tilt camera, and ultrasonic range sensor
lidar/	RPLIDAR A1 laser scanner
oled/	OLED display dashboard
wifi/	Wi-Fi hotspot fallback manager
camera_publisher/	V4L2 camera → ROS 2 topic publisher
webrtc_streamer/	WebRTC browser stream server
webui/	Browser-based robot controller
ansible/	Provisioning playbook for the Raspberry Pi

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Setting up the robot

1. Flash Raspberry Pi OS

Use the Raspberry Pi Imager to write Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit, Lite recommended) to a microSD card.

Before writing, open Advanced options (⚙) and configure:

Setting	Value
Hostname	raspbot-v2.local
SSH	Enabled
Username / Password	Your preferred credentials
Wi-Fi	Your network SSID and password (if not using Ethernet)

Write the image, insert the card, and power on the Pi. Once it is reachable on the network (test with ping raspbot-v2.local), proceed to the next step.

2. Provision with Ansible

The ansible/ directory contains a playbook that handles the remaining setup (enabling SPI, installing Docker). See ansible/README.md for full instructions.

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Building

Prerequisites

• Docker with BuildKit enabled

• For cross-compilation from an amd64 host, register QEMU user-space emulation once:

  docker run --rm --privileged tonistiigi/binfmt --install arm64
  

Build all images

docker compose build

Or build a single service:

docker compose build robot
docker compose build lidar

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Deploying

Pipe images directly to the target over SSH — no intermediate file or registry needed:

# Upload all images
docker save $(docker compose config --images) | ssh <user>@raspbot-v2.local docker load

# Upload a single image
docker save raspbot_v2_oled:latest | ssh <user>@raspbot-v2.local docker load

docker compose config --images resolves all image names from the compose file, including any environment variable substitutions.

Then copy the compose file and any .env to the target:

scp docker-compose.yml <user>@raspbot-v2.local:~/

Replace <user> with the username configured in ansible/inventory.ini.

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Launching

Start everything

docker compose up

To run in the background:

docker compose up -d
docker compose logs -f   # follow logs
docker compose down      # stop and remove containers

Environment variables

Create a .env file alongside docker-compose.yml to override defaults:

ROS_DOMAIN_ID=0
LIDAR_PORT=/dev/ttyUSB0
LIDAR_FRAME_ID=laser
WIFI_SSID=MyNetwork

Variable	Default	Description
ROS_DOMAIN_ID	0	ROS 2 domain — must match on all nodes
LIDAR_PORT	/dev/ttyUSB0	Host device node for the RPLIDAR
LIDAR_FRAME_ID	laser	frame_id in published LaserScan messages
WIFI_SSID	(empty)	Target SSID; if unset the Wi-Fi container creates a hotspot immediately
HOTSPOT_SSID	raspbot-hotspot	Fallback hotspot SSID
HOTSPOT_PASSWORD	raspbot1234	Fallback hotspot passphrase

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Project layout

.
├── docker-compose.yml
├── docker-entrypoint.sh
├── robot/                  # Motor controller, pan/tilt, ultrasonic
├── lidar/                  # RPLIDAR A1
├── oled/                   # OLED display dashboard
├── wifi/                   # Wi-Fi hotspot fallback
├── camera_publisher/       # V4L2 camera → ROS 2 topic
├── webrtc_streamer/        # WebRTC browser stream
├── webui/                  # Browser-based controller UI
└── ansible/                # Raspberry Pi provisioning