Simulated Robots Package

Minimal simulation for mobile robots using ROS2 and Gazebo(Classic and New). This package provides all of the necesarry files to get a simulated robot up and running. This includes the urdf, parameters and launch files for a robot capable of sensing its enviroment, mapping and localization, as well as autonamous and tele-operated navigation. There are two robots available: a 2-wheeled and a 4-wheeled differential drive robot. Currently four sensors are implemented: camera, depth camera, and 2D & 3D lidars. The package has been tested to work humble and foxy, it will be upgraded to work with jazzy in the near future.

Work in progress

The package is still being worked on and in development

Supported on

Ubuntu Version | ROS 2 version | Gazebo – | – | – Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | ROS2 Foxy | Gazebo Classic Ubuntu 22.04 LTS| ROS2 Humble | Gazebo Classic & Gazebo

Support for Ubuntu 24.04 & ROS2 Jazzy is planned.

Branches

ROS 2 version | Gazebo version | Branch – | – | – Foxy | Gazebo Classic | foxy Humble | Gazebo Classic | humble Humble | Fortress | humble-new-gazebo

Note: ROS Iron could work with the humble branches but this has not been tested.

Usage

Two Wheeled Differential Drive Robot

After sourcing ROS and this package we can launch the 2-wheeled differential drive robot simulation with the following command:

ros2 launch sim_bot diff_bot.launch.py 

Four Wheeled Differential Drive Robot

After sourcing ROS and this package we can launch the 4-wheeled differential drive robot simulation with the following command:

ros2 launch sim_bot four_wheel.launch.py 

Ackermann Robot needs to be ported

Controlling the robot

By default the simulation will launch a joystick tele-operation node that will listen for a controller(xbox, ps4, etc) input. To control the robot with the keyboard set the joy launch argument to false.

ros2 launch sim_bot diff_bot.launch.py joy:=False

Then use this command in another terminal:

ros2 run teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard 

Launch configurations

The simulation launch files offer serveral launch configurations to modify its behaviour. All of the launch configurations available are listed below:

Config      Options         Default     Description
world:=     <path_to_world> test.world  Relative path to the simulated world.
headless:=  True/False      False       Toggle the Gazebo graphical interface. 
rviz:=      True/False      True        Activates rviz with pre-made view.
joy:=       True/False      True        Activates controller teleop support.
slam:=      True/False      True        Activates localization and mapping.
nav:=       True/False      True        Activates the navigation stack.
octomap:=   True/False      True        Activates the octomap server.

These configurations are the same no matter the robot type. Example launch command with custom arguments:

ros2 launch sim_bot diff_bot.launch.py headless:=True joy:=False nav:=False

Dependencies

This package is designed to require minimal set-up for robot simulation, the dependencies are as follows. xacro is used for urdf flexibility, gazebo is the simulator being used, twist-mux is used so that the robot can listen to multiple topics for velocity commands, slam-toolbox is used for localization and mapping, navigation2 is the navigation stack of the robot, and octomap lets us create a 3D representation of the enviroment.

sudo apt install -y            \
    ros-humble-xacro           \
    ros-humble-twist-mux       \
    ros-humble-navigation2     \
    ros-humble-slam-toolbox    \
    ros-humble-octomap*        \
    ros-humble-ros-gz          \ 

Install

To use this package please download all of the necesary dependencies first and then follow these steps

mkdir -p sim_ws/src
cd sim_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/Alexander-Levy/sim_bot.git -b humble-new-gazebo
cd ..
colcon build --symlink-install

Launch the simulation to test the package

source ./install/setup.bash
ros2 launch sim_bot diff_bot.launch.py 

Setting up your enviroment

Before launching the simulation make sure to set up your environment by sourcing the following files, replace sim_ws with the path to your workspace.

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
cd sim_ws                           
source install/setup.bash

You need to run these commands every time you open a new terminal. If you don’t want to have to source the setup files every time you open a new termianl (skipping one step), then you can add the command to your terminal startup script:

echo "source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "source <path_to_workspace>/install/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc

Make sure to change <path_to_workspace> with the correct path.

TODO

Package is still being worked on, however the core funtionality is pretty much done, will be adding some things over the next couple of days.

• port ackerman robot (available on humble and foxy)