Connect to RoboRIO from Internet

[origamitaco]

I need to be able to drive a robot across the school using the wifi, but I can't figure out how. My first thought was a bridge with a Pi or a laptop on the robot with the wifi being bridged out to Ethernet, but I don't know how I would access the roboRIOs IP and not the host of the bridge's IP. My second thought was installing a USB wifi card on to the RIO directly, but terminal is a nightmare without APT. Any ideas?

[Kevin Zhang]

The openmesh for competition can be operated from the driverstation over wifi. Just flash the bridge with a 2.4ghz or 5ghz(probably better, less collisions with school network) and connect the driverstation to the bridge wifi.

Then you can operate the robot using your driver station wirelessly as long as you are within range.

[origamitaco]

Originally Posted by Kevin Zhang

The openmesh for competition can be operated from the driverstation over wifi. Just flash the bridge with a 2.4ghz or 5ghz(probably better, less collisions with school network) and connect the driverstation to the bridge wifi.

Then you can operate the robot using your driver station wirelessly as long as you are within range.

Sorry if I was unclear. I meant I needed to use the school wifi to drive the robot. Like from across the campus. The robot is the client in this case not the server like usual

[rich2202]

The RoboRio and the Driver Station expect to have IP Addresses of 10.XX.YY.zz where XX and YY are the same for the DS and RoboRio (team number).

Most likely, you will have to ask the School's IT people to give you 3 static IP address that you can use (third one for the Radio).

You will then have to program the Radio to be a bridge between the school's wifi and the robot. Not sure how to do that.

It is not advisable to drive you robot where you can't see it. So, the configuration you propose is not recommended.

Also, it opens up your robot to anyone driving it that happens to have a Driver Station.

[origamitaco]

Originally Posted by rich2202

The RoboRio and the Driver Station expect to have IP Addresses of 10.XX.YY.zz where XX and YY are the same for the DS and RoboRio (team number).

Most likely, you will have to ask the School's IT people to give you 3 static IP address that you can use (third one for the Radio).

You will then have to program the Radio to be a bridge between the school's wifi and the robot. Not sure how to do that.

It is not advisable to drive you robot where you can't see it. So, the configuration you propose is not recommended.

Also, it opens up your robot to anyone driving it that happens to have a Driver Station.

I was able to take another laptop and use it as a bridge between the RIO and the Driver Station on our primary laptop, however I could only get it to work on a private router and not our school's routers. Any idea why that is? Our school has several networks and I tried every single one of them. I noticed on one of them there was actually per-device isolation, meaning I couldn't even ping the laptop from our primary laptop. On the ones where I could, it could never read the RIO, even though it was bridged. I saw that Team 423 accomplished why I am trying to do and it is mind boggling how they did so. I have also tried VPNs and bridging those, and it worked for a few seconds but even then, when I pinged the RIO I got a response back from the laptop instead.

[rich2202]

You should chat with the School's IT person. There may be protections to keep you from doing what you want. For instance computers (clients) from directly talking to each other (per device isolation). Security like that would limit viruses from transferring from one computer to another, or hackers trying to do bad things, etc. In general, there should be no reason in the school for a computer to talk directly to another computer (talking through a server is totally different).

If you are using mDNS, and there is a Local Names Server, that will be a problem.

Why are you trying to drive over the school's wifi? Driving from anything farther than the Radio can handle is not recommended. If you can't physically see the robot, you should not be controlling it.

[bobbysq]

Originally Posted by rich2202

If you can't physically see the robot, you should not be controlling it.

Tell that to the GDC.

Edit: but seriously, check to see if the port is blocked over the school wifi.

[dirtbikerxz]

Originally Posted by bobbysq

Tell that to the GDC.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Originally Posted by origamitaco

I was able to take another laptop and use it as a bridge between the RIO and the Driver Station on our primary laptop, however I could only get it to work on a private router and not our school's routers. Any idea why that is? Our school has several networks and I tried every single one of them. I noticed on one of them there was actually per-device isolation, meaning I couldn't even ping the laptop from our primary laptop. On the ones where I could, it could never read the RIO, even though it was bridged. I saw that Team 423 accomplished why I am trying to do and it is mind boggling how they did so. I have also tried VPNs and bridging those, and it worked for a few seconds but even then, when I pinged the RIO I got a response back from the laptop instead.

Schools are notorious for blocking devices from talking to each other, blocking ports, etc. Assuming this is a school sanctioned project, your best bet would be to talk to your it guys and see what they can open up for you.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by bobbysq

Tell that to the GDC.

Edit: but seriously, check to see if the port is blocked over the school wifi.

But seriously though, you shouldn't be doing this unless you have a very well thought out plan for doing it safely. How are you going to tell where you're going? How are you going to tell what's behind/beside you if you need to turn? How will you know everyone's hands/faces are clear before you launch a ball or whatever? What happens if you lose a sensor and the robot starts spinning in place at top speed or takes off down the hall? What happens if you have a stroke and fall forward on the joystick? What if the connection is laggy and you have choppy video and can only control the robot in 1/2 second intervals? (That's happened in matches on FRC fields.) Have you disabled those "annoying" MotorSafetyHelpers that kill motors if you don't command them often enough? What about the Watchdog?

What's so important that you want to risk damaging people and property by driving a robot you can't see or stop effectively? The things are dangerous enough when you're watching them from 5 feet away.

[origamitaco]

Originally Posted by Kevin Sevcik

But seriously though, you shouldn't be doing this unless you have a very well thought out plan for doing it safely. How are you going to tell where you're going? How are you going to tell what's behind/beside you if you need to turn? How will you know everyone's hands/faces are clear before you launch a ball or whatever? What happens if you lose a sensor and the robot starts spinning in place at top speed or takes off down the hall? What happens if you have a stroke and fall forward on the joystick? What if the connection is laggy and you have choppy video and can only control the robot in 1/2 second intervals? (That's happened in matches on FRC fields.) Have you disabled those "annoying" MotorSafetyHelpers that kill motors if you don't command them often enough? What about the Watchdog?

What's so important that you want to risk damaging people and property by driving a robot you can't see or stop effectively? The things are dangerous enough when you're watching them from 5 feet away.

Our robot only runs after hours and this would be on the schools track, not inside, but the track has multiple wifi repeaters. I'm looking at severe circumstances to train autonomous and refine it. It will eventually be able to navigate through a mapped out model of the real world (this is for off season, but the networking would be cool to set up now).

[Joey1939]

I actually tried this last year at my school. I was able to setup the radio to bridge my school's wifi connection, and then connect to the robot over the school's wifi network. It seemed like a great idea for training for drive by wire, but I discovered that as the robot drove down the hallway, it had to switched between different access points. Each time it switched access points, I lost driver station comms for just a second, and it proved to be unusable.

[rich2202]

Originally Posted by origamitaco

Our robot only runs after hours and this would be on the schools track, not inside, but the track has multiple wifi repeaters. I'm looking at severe circumstances to train autonomous and refine it. It will eventually be able to navigate through a mapped out model of the real world (this is for off season, but the networking would be cool to set up now).

The robot radio should be more than capable of handling the distance. You shouldn't need to use the School's wifi.

[FrankJ]

The robot communicates over Ethernet. All is simple as long as you are on the same LAN & same subnet. The robot typically uses non-routable IP addresses. Which means they don't go through the router. If the drive station is on the other side of the router as it would be if you are using the internet or some building Ethernet typologies. You would need a VPN or other Ethernet voodoo for it to work