ROS 2 Wrapper

After installing HoloOcean, you can clone this ROS package into your ROS workspace: https://github.com/byu-holoocean/holoocean-ros

Important Notes

• Only single-agent scenarios are currently supported.
• Running HoloOcean and ROS 2 in a virtual environment (e.g., Conda) may cause dependency issues.
• The simulation speed will max out, potentially causing timing errors.

This HoloOcean ROS workspace is compatible with ROS 2 Humble. Follow the ROS 2 installation tutorials here: ROS 2 Humble Installation

Running the Example Controller

After building the package in your ROS workspace, you can run the example controller with the following commands:

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
colcon build
source install/setup.bash

ros2 launch holoocean_main torpedo_launch.py

Refer to the ROS 2 documentation to build nodes that can control the HoloOcean environment.

Torpedo Node Overview

• Subscribes to controller commands
• Publishes sensor data returned in the HoloOcean state
• Creates a timer to tick the environment

HoloOcean publishers use the holoocean namespace. The topic name will follow the scenario name for each sensor. If no name is provided, it defaults to the sensor type.

HoloOcean Interface Package

• Contains the messages and services used for publishing sensor data.

command_example Node

• Publishes random Heading-Speed-Depth (HSD) commands at specific intervals.
• Can publish a preprogrammed sequence of HSD commands.

Publishing Your Own Sensor

To integrate a new sensor in both Python and C++ with the HoloOcean package:

1. Create a Message File
   Add a .msg file (e.g., SensorData.msg) in holoocean_interfaces.

2. Add to CMakeLists
   Update the CMakeLists.txt file to include the new message (e.g., "msg/SensorData.msg").

3. Update Data Converter File

   • Add an elif statement in the convert_to_msg function.
   • Register a new key in sensor_keys.
   • Import the message object (e.g., from holoocean_interfaces.msg import SensorData).
   • Add a function to encode the data into a ROS message.

Then, rebuild your ROS 2 workspace:

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
colcon build
source install/setup.bash

Recording Your Data

To record sensor data or commands with ros2bag, run a command like this from your ros2_ws folder:

source install/setup.bash
ros2 bag record /holoocean/desiredHSD /holoocean/RotationSensor /holoocean/LocationSensor -o /path/to/save_data

For more information on recording and playing back ROS 2 bag data, see the ROS 2 Bag Documentation.

About HoloOcean

HoloOcean is a high-fidelity simulator developed by the Field Robotic Systems Lab (FRostLab) at Brigham Young University. Built upon Unreal Engine (by Epic Games) and Holodeck (developed by the BYU PCCL Lab), HoloOcean facilitates easy simulation of marine robotics and autonomy with a wide variety of sensors, agents, and features.

This repository provides the ROS 2 packages necessary to connect HoloOcean to the ROS 2 network.

Prerequisites

• ROS 2 workspace (tested on ROS 2 Humble Hawksbill): ROS 2 Documentation
• HoloOcean installation:
  • Source Code: https://github.com/byu-holoocean/HoloOcean
  • Documentation: HoloOcean Documentation