youBot for Windows

Since fall 2014 the youbot driver can be used natively on Windows. That means driver and control programs can be compiled with the Windows and Visual Studio environment without requiring any Linux components. This became possible by using the latest version of the SOEM library, together with the WinPcap driver.

We have tested only on Windows XP and Windows 7 so far, but other versions should work as well.

Installation

The installation requirements comprise

    Visual Studio / Visual C++  (2010 and newer, Express version is sufficient)
    CMake (version 2.8 or newer)
    Boost (version 1.48 or newer)
    WinPcap (version 4.1.2 or newer)
    WinPcap developer's pack (version 4.1.2 or newer)

For more information about installation see the Wiki: http://www.youbot-store.com/wiki/index.php?title=Youbot_driver#Windows

The installation can be together with ROS for Windows using the driver as a ROS package, or completely independent of ROS.

Usage

Usage of the driver under Windows is mostly the same as under Linux.

Finding the network ID for the EtherCAT access is a bit more complicated, while on Linux it is just "eth0" or similar. How to do this is described here.

An example project described on the Wiki highlights some specific issues for Windows.