AWS DeepRacer Offroad navigation package

Overview

The AWS DeepRacer Offroad navigation ROS package creates the deepracer_offroad_navigation_node which decides the action or controller message to send out using the normalized detection error (delta) received from qr_detection_node. For more information about the AWS DeepRacer Offroad sample project, see DeepRacer Offroad sample project.

License

The source code is released under Apache 2.0.

Installation

Follow these steps to install the AWS DeepRacer Offroad navigation package.

Prerequisites

The AWS DeepRacer device comes with all the prerequisite packages and libraries installed to run the DeepRacer Offroad sample project. For more information about the pre-installed set of packages and libraries on the AWS DeepRacer and about installing the required build systems, see Getting started with AWS DeepRacer OpenSource.

The deepracer_offroad_navigation_pkg specifically depends on the following ROS 2 packages as build and execute dependencies:

1. deepracer_interfaces_pkg: This package contains the custom message and service type definitions used across the AWS DeepRacer core application, modified to support the AWS DeepRacer Offroad sample project.

Downloading and building

Open a terminal on the AWS DeepRacer device and run the following commands as the root user.

1. Switch to the root user before you source the ROS 2 installation:

    sudo su
   

2. Source the ROS 2 Foxy setup bash script:

    source /opt/ros/foxy/setup.bash 
   

3. Set the environment variables required to run Intel OpenVino scripts:

    source /opt/intel/openvino_2021/bin/setupvars.sh
   

4. Create a workspace directory for the package:

    mkdir -p ~/deepracer_ws
    cd ~/deepracer_ws
   

5. Clone the entire AWS DeepRacer Offroad sample project on the DeepRacer device:

    git clone https://github.com/aws-deepracer/aws-deepracer-offroad-sample-project.git
    cd ~/deepracer_ws/aws-deepracer-offroad-sample-project/deepracer_offroad_ws/
   

6. Fetch unreleased dependencies:

    cd ~/deepracer_ws/aws-deepracer-offroad-sample-project/deepracer_offroad_ws/
    rosws update
   

7. Resolve the dependencies:

    cd ~/deepracer_ws/aws-deepracer-offroad-sample-project/deepracer_offroad_ws/ && apt-get update
    rosdep install -i --from-path . --rosdistro foxy -y
   

8. Build the deepracer_offroad_navigation_pkg and deepracer_interfaces_pkg:

    cd ~/deepracer_ws/aws-deepracer-offroad-sample-project/deepracer_offroad_ws/ && colcon build --packages-select deepracer_offroad_navigation_pkg deepracer_interfaces_pkg
   

Usage

Although the deepracer_offroad_navigation_node is built to work with the AWS DeepRacer Offroad sample project, it can be run independently for development, testing, and debugging purposes.

Run the node

To launch the built deepracer_offroad_navigation_node as the root user on the AWS DeepRacer device open up another terminal on the AWS DeepRacer device and run the following commands as the root user.

1. Switch to the root user before you source the ROS 2 installation:

    sudo su
   

2. Navigate to the AWS DeepRacer Offroad workspace:

    cd ~/deepracer_ws/aws-deepracer-offroad-sample-project/deepracer_offroad_ws/
   

3. Source the ROS 2 Foxy setup bash script:

    source /opt/ros/foxy/setup.bash 
   

4. Source the setup script for the installed packages:

    source ~/deepracer_ws/aws-deepracer-offroad-sample-project/deepracer_offroad_ws/install/setup.bash 
   

5. Launch the deepracer_offroad_navigation_node using the launch script:

    ros2 launch deepracer_offroad_navigation_pkg deepracer_offroad_navigation_pkg_launch.py
   

Launch files

A launch file called deepracer_offroad_navigation_pkg_launch.py is included in this package. It gives an example of how to launch the deepracer_offroad_navigation_node.

    from launch import LaunchDescription
    from launch_ros.actions import Node

    def generate_launch_description():
        return LaunchDescription([
            Node(
                package='deepracer_offroad_navigation_pkg',
                namespace='deepracer_offroad_navigation_pkg',
                executable='deepracer_offroad_navigation_node',
                name='deepracer_offroad_navigation_node'
            )
        ])

Node details

deepracer_offroad_navigation_node

Subscribed topics

Published topics

Services

Resources

• Getting started with AWS DeepRacer OpenSource
• Getting started with the AWS DeepRacer Offroad sample project