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Pedestrian Simulator

Pedestrian Simulator (Pedsim) is a 2D pedestrian simulator based on the social force model of Helbing et. al. This repository is an extension of the original Pedsim repository and also incorporating features from Ronja GĂĽldenring's fork. It's supposed to be used in conjunction with Arena-Rosnav.

Movement of the agents in the simulation is controlled by these forces:

  • desired force (pulls agent towards the current destination)
  • social force (pushes agent away from other agents)
  • obstacle force (pushes agent away from obstacles)
  • robot force (pushes agent away from robot)

Additionally agents can perform different actions that interrupt or modify the movement like talking to each other, stand as a group or take a walk with another agent. We also implemented the possibility to spawn a forklift agent that has the same basic movement functionality but has different actions e.g. loading/unloading objects.

For Pedsim to work together with Arena-Rosnav it needs to be synced to Flatland Simulator. This is done via a flatland plugin that subscribes to the simulated_agents topic published by Pedsim and updates the position of the corresponding flatland models accordingly.

Examples

Human agents walking together Human agents standing as a group
Forklift agent doing some work

Demo

1. Normal Arena-Rosnav Installation

See Installation Manual

2. Switch to sim_to_real branch and pull forks

cd ~/catkin_ws/src/arena-rosnav
git checkout sim_to_real
rosws update --delete-changed-uris .

3. Build and Source

cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin_make -DPYTHON_EXECUTABLE=/usr/bin/python3
source devel/setup.zsh

4. Start Demo

workon rosnav
roslaunch arena_bringup pedsim_demo.launch

This will start Flatland, Pedsim and a script that will spawn a few agents.

How to set up Pedsim to work with your own Arena-Rosnav branch

1. Add Pedsim to .rosinstall

Copy this to your .rosinstall file:

- git:
    local-name: ../forks/pedsim_ros
    uri: https://github.com/ignc-research/pedsim_ros
    version: master

Afterwards run rosws update

cd ~/catkin_ws/src/arena-rosnav
rosws update .

2. Add Pedsim to a launch file

Add the following to the launch file you want to use:

<arg name="simulation_factor" default="1"/>
<arg name="update_rate" default="25.0"/>
<arg name="scene_file" default="$(find simulator_setup)/pedsim_scenarios/empty.xml"/>

<node name="pedsim_simulator" pkg="pedsim_simulator" type="pedsim_simulator" output="screen">
    <param name="simulation_factor" value="$(arg simulation_factor)" type="double"/>
    <param name="update_rate" value="$(arg update_rate)" type="double"/>
    <param name="scene_file" value="$(arg scene_file)" type="string"/>
</node>

Pedsim was originally meant to be started using a scenario.xml file. In our version you can spawn agents dynamically but you still need to provide a scenario.xml file. Best practice is to just use an empty scenario. For the above snippet to work you need a file called empty.xml in this folder:

~/catkin_ws/src/arena-rosnav/simulator_setup/pedsim_scenarios/

empty.xml should contains this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<scenario>
</scenario>

After launching, the pedsim_simulator node should be running and advertising its services.

Notable Pedsim Services

/pedsim_simulator/spawn_peds

Spawns a number of agents in Pedsim. Additionally it spawns models in Flatland by calling the /spawn_models service. Uses an array of Ped messages. Fields that can be filled:

Type Name Description typical value
int16 id agent id(*) -
geometry_msgs/Point pos starting position -
string type Agent Type "adult"
int16 number_of_peds number of agents in this cluster 1
float64 vmax max. velocity 1.4
float64 chatting_probability Probability entering StateTalking 0.01
float64 tell_story_probability Probability entering StateTellStory 0.01
float64 group_talking_probability Probability entering StateGroupTalking 0.01
float64 talking_and_walking_probability Probability entering StateTalkingAndWalking 0.01
float64 requesting_service_probability Probability entering StateRequestingService 0.01
float64 max_talking_distance how close agents need to be, to be able to talk to them 1.5
float64 max_servicing_radius radius in which the service robot will provide service 10.0
float64 talking_base_time time agent spends being in StateTalking (***) 10.0
float64 tell_story_base_time time agent spends being in StateTellStory (***) 10.0
float64 group_talking_base_time time agent spends being in StateGroupTalking (***) 10.0
float64 talking_and_walking_base_time time agent spends being in StateTalkingAndWalking (***) 10.0
float64 receiving_service_base_time time agent spends being in StateReceivingService (***) 30.0
float64 requesting_service_base_time time agent spends being in StateRequestingService (***) 30.0
float64 force_factor_desired desired force will be multiplied by this factor 1.0
float64 force_factor_obstacle obstacle force will be multiplied by this factor 2.0
float64 force_factor_social social force will be multiplied by this factor 2.0
geometry_msgs/Point[] waypoints destinations for the agent -
int16 waypoint_mode can be loop (0) or random (1) 1
string yaml_file path to flatland model file (**) -

(*) not used currently; agents automatically increment their id, starting at 1

(**) models are found in arena-rosnav/simulator_setup/dynamic_obstacles/

(***) this value will be multiplied by a random factor (0.5 to 1.5) every time the state gets activated

/pedsim_simulator/reset_all_peds

Resets all agents to their starting position and resets their current destination. Uses std_srvs/Trigger Message.

/pedsim_simulator/remove_all_peds

Removes all agents from Pedsim and also removes their corresponding models from Flatland. Uses std_srvs/SetBool Message.

/pedsim_simulator/respawn_peds

Calls remove_all_peds first and then spawn_peds with the given array of Ped messages.

/pedsim_simulator/spawn_interactive_obstacles

Spawns a number of interactive obstacles. Agents will interact with these when they get close. Additionally it spawns models in Flatland by calling the /spawn_models service. Uses an array of InteractiveObstacle messages. Fields that can be filled:

Type Name Description typical value
string type obstacle type, only "shelf" available currently "shelf"
geometry_msgs/Pose pose position and angle -
float64 interaction_radius if the appropriate agent enters this radius, it will interact 4.0
string yaml_file path to flatland model file (*) -

(*) models are found in arena-rosnav/simulator_setup/dynamic_obstacles/

/pedsim_simulator/remove_all_interactive_obstacles

Removes all interactive obstacles from Pedsim and also removes their corresponding models from Flatland. Uses std_srvs/Trigger Message.

/pedsim_simulator/respawn_interactive_obstacles

Calls remove_all_interactive_obstacles first and then spawn_interactive_obstacles with the given array of InteractiveObstacle messages.

Notable Pedsim Topics

The most important topic is /pedsim_simulator/simulated_agents. It publishes an array of AgentState messages. The most important fields are:

Type Name Description
string type Agent Type
string social_state Agent State
geometry_msgs/Pose pose position
geometry_msgs/Twist twist velocity
float64 direction angle the agent is facing

Note: pose contains information about orientation, just like direction does. direction is meant to be the angle, the agent is facing on a semantic level. Due to how Pedsim works, the orientation in pose can change very rapidly based on small movements.

Agent Types

Agents currently can be one of four types which affects their behavior

ID Name
0 adult
1 child
2 elder
3 vehicle
4 servicerobot

Agent States

The agents behavior is controlled by a statemachine with the following states depending on agent type:

Human agents:

StateWaiting

Standing still.

StateWalking

Walking to the next destination.

StateRunning

Like StateWalking but increased movement speed.

StateTalking

Talking to another agent, standing still.

StateTellStory

When entering this state the agent will stand still. Listeners will gather around in a circular pattern.

StateGroupTalking

When entering this state the agent triggers a group talk with the agent itself and other agents in range gathering in a cirular pattern.

StateListening

This state will be triggered whenever one of these is true:

  • another agent is talking to this agent directly (StateTalking)
  • another agent in close proximity is telling a story (StateTellStory)
  • another agent in close proximity has initiated a group talk (StateGroupTalking)

StateTalkingAndWalking

Talk to another agent while walking to the next destination. This means that the listening agent will be walking directly next to this agent.

StateListeningAndWalking

This state will be triggered when another agent entered StateTalkingAndWalking with this agent as the recipient. This agent will walk directly next to the talking agent.

StateRequestingService

When entering this state the agent will slow down and signal to service robots that it's requesting service. If no service robot reached this agent in a given time it switches back to StateWalking.

StateReceivingService

This state will be activated once a service robot has reached this agent. Switch back to StateWalking after the configured time has passed.

Vehicle (forklift) agents:

StateDriving

Driving to the next destination.

StateReachedShelf

Reached the destination (shelf) and turn towards it.

StateLiftingForks

Standing still.

StateLoading

Standing still.

StateLoweringForks

Standing still.

Service Robot agents:

StateDriving

Driving to the next destination.

StateDrivingToInteraction

Activated once there is an agent in state StateRequestingService in a circular area around the service robot. Radius of the area can be configured by the parameter max_servicing_radius in pedsim_msgs/Ped. The Service robot will now drive towards the requesting agent.

StateProvidingService

Activated once the service robot has reached the requesting agent. Will stay in this state as long as the other agent is in StateReceivingService.

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