VRRL Tello Mapping and Detection

This repository provides a library which can be used to deploy SLAM for the DJI Tello Drone. The implementation makes use of the ORB-SLAM2 algorithm to create a point cloud map by analyzing the video feed from the drone which is communicated using ROS, with the DJITelloPy library used to receive the frames.

Dependencies

1. Modified ORB_SLAM2 (with point cloud outputting) repository (All depenencies of this library must be resolved)
2. The DJITelloPy repository
3. ROS Kinetic

Build and execution example: real-time SLAM using the drone's video feed (no motion)

1. Clone the master branch of this repository as vrrl.

   git clone https://gitlab.com/Salarios77/vrrl.git vrrl
   

2. Add the SLAM_ROS directory to the ROS_PACKAGE_PATH by the following line to your bashrc and restart the terminal console.

   export ROS_PACKAGE_PATH=${ROS_PACKAGE_PATH}:'PATH_TO_VRRL'/vrrl/SLAM_ROS

3. Change directory to the SLAM_ROS package folder.

   cd vrrl/SLAM_ROS

4. Change the set (ORB_SLAM2_DIR ...) line in CMakeLists.txt to refer to the directory where the ORB_SLAM2 library is located.

   set (ORB_SLAM2_DIR "PATH_TO_ORB_SLAM2/ORB_SLAM2")

5. Create a build folder and build the package. Source setup.bash.

   mkdir build && cd build
   cmake ..
   make
   source devel/setup.bash

6. Run the Mono node from the SLAM_ROS package which will wait for the video feed from the drone.

   rosrun SLAM_ROS Mono ../../Calibration/ORBvoc.txt ../../Calibration/tello.yaml

7. Open a new terminal console and change directory to vrrl/Tello. Then, initiate video recording from the drone.

   cd vrrl/Tello
   python FrameCapture.py

Running point cloud clustering

1. Make sure you have a distribution of python with the right packages. Have roscore running in the background.

2. Run the code to start a listener node.

   python3 pc_filter.py

3. Run the ros command to convert a pcd file to a pointcloud message.

   rosrun pcl_ros pcd_to_pointcloud path_to_pcd

Other Notes

The camera parameters and ORB-SLAM2 vocabulary can be configured by modifying the files under vrrl/Calibration. See the ORB_SLAM2 repository for further information.