ROS packages for JPL Open Source Rover Gazebo Simulation

[!NOTE] This package isn’t compiled with colcon by default. If you want to use this, remove the COLCON_IGNORE file

Overview

The following ROS packages are included to visualize the rover in rviz and simulate its operations in Gazebo:

• rviz.launch: Launches a package for observing the rover in rviz, providing real-time visualization of its movements and sensor data.
• empty_world.launch: Deploys the rover within the Gazebo simulation environment, creating a virtual testing ground for rover operations.

Dependencies

Linux

• Operating System: Ubuntu 22.04.06 LTS
• ROS Distributions: Iron, Humble
• Gazebo Version: 11.14.0

ROS Package Installation

Before installing the required packages, replace ${ros-distro} in the commands below with the appropriate ROS distribution name (iron, humble).

sudo apt install python3-colcon-common-extensions
sudo apt-get install ros-${ros-distro}-rviz2
sudo apt-get install ros-${ros-distro}-controller-manager
sudo apt-get install ros-${ros-distro}-robot-state-publisher
sudo apt-get install ros-${ros-distro}-joint-state-publisher
sudo apt-get install ros-${ros-distro}-joint-state-publisher-gui 
sudo apt-get install ros-${ros-distro}-gazebo-ros-pkgs
sudo apt-get install ros-${ros-distro}-trajectory-msgs
sudo apt-get install ros-${ros-distro}-velocity-controllers
sudo apt-get install ros-${ros-distro}-joint-trajectory-controller
sudo apt-get install ros-${ros-distro}-gazebo-ros2-control-demos

Installation

Create and configure a workspace

Source your ROS installation:

source /opt/ros/${ros-distro}/setup.bash

build the osr-gazebo packages:

cd ~/osr-rover-code/ROS/osr_gazebo
colcon build
source ~/osr-rover-code/ROS/osr_gazebo/install/setup.bash

Visualisation

rover_rviz

This package includes launch and rviz configuration files for visualising the rover.

To view the rover in rviz and manually control the joints, execute the following command:

ros2 launch osr_gazebo rviz.launch.py

Simulation

rover_simulation

This package provides essential launch needed for the visualization of the rover within a simulation environment.

To launch the simulation along with the capability to manually control the joints, use the command:

ros2 launch osr_gazebo empty_world.launch.py

Keyboard controller

ros2 run teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard

Note

• The control does not have specified linear and angular velocities. Therefore, it’s necessary to add the maximum and minimum values for cmd_vel in the motor_controller.cpp.
• The ROS1::noetic version of gazebo simulation exists at https://github.com/dongjineee/rover_gazebo.

The method to convert from Onshape to URDF

• The object file for the rover is available within Onshape.
• This object file can be disassembled into its individual components, such as rocker bogie1,2,3, and box, etc..
• However, directly using it as a URDF after converting it to an STL will result in significant CPU and GPU usage in RViz or Gazebo due to the file size issue.
• Therefore, the process of reducing the file size of the STL using MeshLab was carried out.
• The package provided at https://github.com/gstavrinos/calc-inertia was then used to define the inertial properties.