This package interfaces with Sonardyne equipment to provide a ROS interface. Nodes are included to communicate with the Ranger software using XML based protocol of the Remote Control interface as well as to communicate directly with modems using the serial protocol over serial, TCP or UDP connections.

The modem_node.py node provides topics for sending and receiving SMS messages as well as sending and receiving raw modem commands. Diagnostics are also published over the standard /diagnostics topic.

Raw data coming from the modem is published as std_msgs/String messages on the ~raw topic and SMS messages are published as sonardyne_msgs/SMS messages on the ~received_sms topic.

Raw commands can be sent to the modem by publishing std_msgs/String messages to ~send_raw while SMS messages can be sent as sonardyne_msgs/SMS messages to ~send_sms.

The connection type is specified with the ~connection/type parameter with expected values of serial, tcp or udp.

For a serial connection, the serial port is specified by the ~connection/port parameter and the baud rate by ~connection/baud_rate.

For a tcp connection, the host and port are specifed by ~connection/host and ~connection/port.

For a udp connection, the host, input port, and output port are specified by ~connection/host, ~connection/input_port and ~connection/output_port.

The ranger_node.py node subscribes to asynchronous position updates from the Ranger software and publishes them as geographic_msgs/GeoPointStamped messages. Devices that are tracked have their positions published to topics under ~positions/ consiting of the device names.

The node also publishes position data as received as sonardyne_msgs/Position messages on the ~geographic_positions topic as well as device status updates as sonardyne_msgs/DeviceStatus messages on the ~device_status topic.

Active tracking of devices can be enabled or disabled by sending a sonardune_msgs/DeviceEnable message to the ~enable_tracking topic. To find a devices UID, the ~device_status topic can be monitored.

For monitoring and troubleshooting, the raw XML data received from the Ranger software is published on the ~raw_control topic.

The following parameters specify the connection infromation.

The host running the Ranger software.

The UDP ports configured in the Ranger software for the Remote Control interface.