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robile_gazebo

Gazebo simulations for KELO ROBILE robots

Installation

In addition to a few ROS dependencies, this package also depends on the following packages provided by KELO-robotics:

  1. kelo_tulip
  2. robile_description

Assuming you have a catkin workspace at ~/catkin_ws, execute the below commands to install the simulator and its dependencies

sudo apt install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-controller-manager ros-$ROS_DISTRO-effort-controllers ros-$ROS_DISTRO-velocity-controllers ros-$ROS_DISTRO-gazebo-ros ros-$ROS_DISTRO-gazebo-ros-control

cd ~/catkin_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/kelo-robotics/kelo_tulip.git
git clone https://[email protected]:444/kelo/platforms/robile_description.git
git clone https://[email protected]:444/kelo/simulation/robile_gazebo.git

catkin build kelo_tulip # you will need to enter your password for the kelo_tulip build to complete

catkin build robile_description robile_gazebo
source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash

Usage

To start the gazebo simulator, use one of the launch files defined in the launch/ directory as follows:

roslaunch robile_gazebo 4_wheel_platform.launch

You can then publish command velocities on the ros topic /cmd_vel to move the robot around.

Additional launch file arguments

Several arguments can be passed when launching the simulator. A complete list of supported roslaunch arguments can be found in the launch/platform_independent/robile_gazebo.launch file. We list a few most important ones here.

Argument name Type Default Description
platform_max_lin_vel float 1.0 Maximum linear velocity the platform can achieve in the XY plane (in m/s)
platform_max_ang_vel float 1.0 Maximum angular velocity the platform can achieve along the Z axis (in rad/s)
init_pos_x float 0.0 Spawn position of robot along the world X-axis
init_pos_y float 0.0 Spawn position of robot along the world Y-axis
init_yaw float 0.0 Spawn orientation of robot along the world Z-axis
gazebo_gui boolean true Start the Gazebo simulation GUI
start_rviz boolean true Start RViz with a predefined RViz configuration file

For example to change the spawn position of the robot to (2.0, 3.0), and disable the Gazebo GUI, use the below command:

roslaunch robile_gazebo 4_wheel_platform.launch init_pos_x:=2.0 init_pos_y:=3.0 gazebo_gui:=false

TUTORIAL: Adding a custom ROBILE platform

In this section we describe the procedure to simulate custom ROBILE platform configurations.

Step-1: Add a new ROBILE platform definition

Simulating a custom platform, requires defining the robot configuration in a URDF file. This must be done in the robile_description package and detailed instructions for the same are available here.

Step-2: Define ros-control configuration file for the custom platform

Lets assume our custom platform config is called simple_config (continuing from the robile_description tutorial). Follow the below steps to add ros-controllers for the custom platform.

  1. Add a new file called simple_config.yaml in the directory config/ros_controller/. This file name must match the name of the platform defined in the robile_description package.
  2. Add the following block of code to the file to create a joint_state_controller. 
    # Publish all joint states -----------------------------------
joint_state_controller:
    type: joint_state_controller/JointStateController
    publish_rate: 50

# Velocity Controllers -----------------------------------------
  3. For every robile_active_wheel module defined in the platform configuration file robile_description/robots/simple_config.urdf.xacro, include the below block of code in the YAML file. Replace the <ROBILE_MODULE_NAME> with the actual name defined for the ROBILE module in the URDF file. 
    <ROBILE_MODULE_NAME>_left_hub_wheel_controller:
    type: effort_controllers/JointVelocityController
    joint: <ROBILE_MODULE_NAME>_drive_left_hub_wheel_joint
    pid: {p: 100.0, i: 10.0, d: 0.01}
<ROBILE_MODULE_NAME>_right_hub_wheel_controller:
    type: effort_controllers/JointVelocityController
    joint: <ROBILE_MODULE_NAME>_drive_right_hub_wheel_joint
    pid: {p: 100.0, i: 10.0, d: 0.01}
  4. A complete config/ros_controller/simple_config.yaml should look something like the one shown below: 
    # Publish all joint states -----------------------------------
joint_state_controller:
    type: joint_state_controller/JointStateController
    publish_rate: 50

# Velocity Controllers -----------------------------------------
robile_3_left_hub_wheel_controller:
    type: effort_controllers/JointVelocityController
    joint: robile_3_drive_left_hub_wheel_joint
    pid: {p: 100.0, i: 10.0, d: 0.01}
robile_3_right_hub_wheel_controller:
    type: effort_controllers/JointVelocityController
    joint: robile_3_drive_right_hub_wheel_joint
    pid: {p: 100.0, i: 10.0, d: 0.01}


robile_4_left_hub_wheel_controller:
    type: effort_controllers/JointVelocityController
    joint: robile_4_drive_left_hub_wheel_joint
    pid: {p: 100.0, i: 10.0, d: 0.01}
robile_4_right_hub_wheel_controller:
    type: effort_controllers/JointVelocityController
    joint: robile_4_drive_right_hub_wheel_joint
    pid: {p: 100.0, i: 10.0, d: 0.01}

Step-3: Define a ros launch file for the custom platform

A platform specific launch file can be defined as follows:

  1. Add a new launch file called simple_config.launch in the launch/ directory.
  2. Add the following code block to the launch file: 
    <?xml version="1.0"?>
<launch>
    <!--
        Platform specific arguments must be defined here
    -->
    
    <include file="$(find robile_gazebo)/launch/platform_independent/robile_gazebo.launch" pass_all_args="true"/>
</launch>
  3. Add an argument to specify the name of the platform configuration file. The name must exactly match the platform config URDF file name which is defined in the robile_description/robots/ directory. In our example this would be simple_config. 
    <arg name="platform_config" value="simple_config"/>
  4. Finally list all the hub wheel controller names defined in the config/ros_controller/simple_config.yaml file as follows: 
    <arg name="hub_wheel_controller_list" 
     value="robile_3_left_hub_wheel_controller
            robile_3_right_hub_wheel_controller
            robile_4_left_hub_wheel_controller
            robile_4_right_hub_wheel_controller" />
  5. The complete ros launch file should look something like the one shown below: 
    <?xml version="1.0"?>
<launch>
    <!--
        Platform specific arguments must be defined here
    -->
    <arg name="platform_config" value="simple_config"/>
    <arg name="hub_wheel_controller_list" 
         value="robile_3_left_hub_wheel_controller
                robile_3_right_hub_wheel_controller
                robile_4_left_hub_wheel_controller
                robile_4_right_hub_wheel_controller" />

    <include file="$(find robile_gazebo)/launch/platform_independent/robile_gazebo.launch" pass_all_args="true"/>
</launch>