This project build with ROS and Python provide a whole nodes structure that makes a robotic platform able to navigate autonomously using RVIZ as a 3D map viewer where the point and orientation in which the platform is to be located is indicated. this proyect is optimized for a platform designed by the research group of the University of Alcalá GRAM.
Autonomous.Navigation.mp4
To use this software you must have ROS installed in your platform. We have been using ROS Melodic cause our platform runs Ubuntu 18.04, in case that you are runinng Ubuntu 16.04 you have to install ROS Kinetic. There are not any differences between this two versions, ROS Melodic is an adaptation of ROS Kinetic for Ubuntu 18.04.
To install ROS:
Setup the sources.list
$ sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list'
Setup the keys
$ curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.asc | sudo apt-key add -
$ sudo apt update
I recommend to install the full version with all the libraries as RVIZ, we will need them for runing the project.
$ sudo apt install ros-melodic-desktop-full
Environment setup
$ echo "source /opt/ros/melodic/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
$ source ~/.bashrc
Dependencies for building packages
$ sudo apt install python-rosdep python-rosinstall python-rosinstall-generator python-wstool build-essential
$ sudo apt install python-rosdep
$ sudo rosdep init
$ rosdep update
It is necessary to install libraries that may not be installed with the ROS installation:
$ sudo apt-get install ros-melodic-spatio-temporal-voxel-layer
$ sudo apt-get install ros-melodic-navigation
In this repository there is included an Arduinio folder in where we have all the software relative to the Arduino board. To install the Arduino software in your Arduino board you just have to follow the next steps:
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Download the Arduino IDE, https://www.arduino.cc/en/software
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Download the mcp2515 library needed to make the software work, https://github.com/autowp/arduino-mcp2515/archive/master.zip
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Install the library as it is represented in this images
- Open, inside the Arduino folder from this repository, the SRE.ino file.
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Compile the project and verify everything is working well.
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Connect the Arduino board to the computer andopen a serial monitor, if you get some data back that means that the installation has been done successfully.
- If it is not working it may be because you have to select the "Arduino Mega" in the board options and the baudios option has to be at 115200.
It is necessary to create a catkin workspace to put the project and compile it:
$ mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src
$ cd ~/catkin_ws
$ catkin_make
$ source devel/setup.bash
To make sure that the workspace is correctly overlaid by the configuration script, make sure that the ROS PACKAGE PATH environment variable includes the directory in which it is located, for this we will use the following command:
$ echo $ROS_PACKAGE_PATH
Which should return something like:
/home/youruser/catkin_ws/src:/opt/ros/melodic/share
We need to clone a repository to make the rplidar work. This one has to be clonated in the src folder inside the catkin workspace:
$ cd ~/catkin_ws/src
$ git clone https://github.com/Slamtec/rplidar_ros.git
After that you will have your catkin workspace ready to go. The last step that you have to make is to add the "lola2_global" folder of this repository in the rute:
/home/youruser/catkin_ws/src
Then you have to compile again the workspace using:
$ cd ~/catkin_ws
$ catkin_make
To use this software you must follow the next steps:
Open a terminal
- $ cd ~/catkin_lola2
- $ catkin_make
- $ . devel/setup.bash
- $ cd src
- $ rosrun lola2_global hwinterface_script_lola2
Open another terminal
- $ cd ~/catkin_lola2
- $ catkin_make
- $ . devel/setup.bash
- $ cd src
- $ roslaunch lola2_global rviz_navigation.launch
We have to start runing the hwinterface_script_lola2.py first cause if not it will be waiting for the rviz_navigation.launch to finish. After we launch the hwinterface we launch the rviz_navigation.launch that will start all the nodes structure that we need to start the navigation.
After this we will see in the screen that RVIZ opens.
The platform will be displayed in a predetermined point in the map, to change that we just have to click in the "2D Pose Estimate" option and click in the map where the platform is located.
Platform.Position.mp4
When we have the platform in where in the real world is we just have to indicate the point where we want the platform to go. To do that we just have to select the "2D Nav Goal" option and click in the map where you want the platform to be. While you click in the map to select the point you have to drag the cursor indicating the orientation that you want the platform to have when it reaches the point.
Select.a.point.mp4
In the project there is a folder called "config" where the parameter files reside. Therer a a lot of parameters and all of them are optimized for our platfor, you are free to modify any of them. The most important ones are:
- 'max_velocity' and 'min_celocity'
- 'yaw_goal_tolerance' and 'xy_goal_tolerance'
- 'occdist_scale'
- 'sim_granularity'
- 'inflation_radius'
- 'cost_scaling_factor'
The best support that you can get is the wiki of ROS http://wiki.ros.org/Documentation Anyway here it is my personal email to contact me in case that you need some help [email protected]
Right now we have two robotic platforms working perfectly using this software. In the future the idea is to improve the movement and times of the robot, cause sometimes it can take a while to calculate where it is exactly in the map.
Another interesting thing to maybe implement in the future could be moving all this nodes structure to ROS 2 that makes everthing much easier and it could probably improve the efficiency of the platform while navigating.
Jaime Mas Santillán, Francisco Javier Acevedo Rodríguez y Roberto Javier López Sastre.
Right now we continue working in the project to improve it.