iRobot® Create® 3 Release G.2.2

This release is running ROS 2 Galactic with the following interface library versions:

• irobot_create_msgs - 1.2.4
• cyclonedds - 0.8.1
• Fast-DDS - 2.3.3

Release Overview

As with the last release, this one provides the robot's sensors and controls via topics, actions, and services.
iRobot® Education Bluetooth protocol functionality has been greatly improved in this release; we have released the iRobot Education Python Web Playground to interact with the robot.
Please be sure your robot's BLE/USB Toggle is in the "BLE" position in order to use the robot in this mode.
Note that when the Bluetooth¹ radio is enabled, the USB-C² port cannot communicate with a downstream device (though it remains powered).

Changelog (from G.1.1)

Core Robot

• Webserver
  • Properly handles Unicode characters with SSIDs, hostnames, and Bluetooth names
  • Reboot Robot and Factory Reset are only available in AP mode
  • Added "Identify Robot" when in AP mode to assist setting up multiple robots at once
  • MAC addresses are visible on About page
• User Interface
  • E-Stop and Backup Limit have new LED patterns to disambiguate from other uses of the UI
  • Toggling USB/BLE no longer requires manual application reset from webserver
• Motion Control
  • Improve reporting and recovery after safety limits are triggered

ROS 2

• Docking / undocking action improvements and fixes
• Coordinate system fixes
  • base_link is now 3D
  • base_footprint added as a 2D TF frame
  • imu_link has been removed
• Advertise light ring brightness parameter
• Added audio publication and action to make speakers play sound

iRobot® Education Bluetooth protocol mode

• Fully implement protocol v1.4
• Add sound device
• Add sound on connection and disconnection
• Advertising rate increased to 10 Hz
• Changing robot name when connected is now reflected in advertisement
• Pressing the power button stops all actuators
• Connection improvements on iOS and Android
• Many stability improvements

Known issues

Core Robot

• Robot may require multiple connection attempts when changing Wi-Fi networks
• Robot will restart application when its connectivity changes, including connection changes with Wi-Fi or the USB interface, or when it receives a new DHCP lease. This is helpful for autoconfiguration with DDSes but can be disruptive.
• Robot prefers time sync from Wi-Fi over its USB interface

ROS 2

• When using CycloneDDS, invoking ROS 2³ actions causes a memory leak on the robot. When the robot runs out of memory, it will automatically restart the application. Follow this issue for more information.

iRobot® Education Bluetooth protocol mode

• Robot does not recognize disconnection for thirty seconds.
• Changing Bluetooth name in the webserver does not modify advertisement name until application is restarted

1. The Bluetooth® word mark and logos are registered trademarks owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and any use of such marks by iRobot is under license. ↩

2. USB-C® is a trademark of USB Implementers Forum. ↩

3. ROS 2 is governed by Open Robotics. ↩

iRobot® Create® 3 Release G.1.1

This release is running ROS 2 Galactic with the following interface library versions:

• irobot_create_msgs - 1.2.2
• cyclonedds - 0.8.1
• Fast-DDS - 2.3.3

Release Overview

This release provides the robot's sensors and controls via topics, actions, and services.

The robot runs a webserver for updating software, configuring to the network, getting error logs from the robot, and configuring ROS 2 environment variables and parameters.
This release has some known issues using the network configuration webserver page to associate with networks using characters that are not alphanumeric 7-bit ASCII.
If there is an issue getting on the network, it is recommended to first update the software via the robot's host AP mode, then try getting on the network with the latest version, see Create® 3 Setup.