FSSIM

FSSIM is a vehicle simulator dedicated for Formula Student Driverless Competition. It was developed for autonomous software testing purposes and not for gaming. A version of this simulator was used to predict lap time of gotthard at FSAC 2020 trackdrive with 1% accuracy.

This simulator is developed and tested on Ubuntu 18.04 and ROS Melodic and both are assumed to be already installed.

The more extensive tutorial can be found under Wiki

FSSIM is developed by Juraj Kabzan as part of our work at AMZ-Driverless.

this ROS package is converted from AMZ-Driverless

We added two cameras into simulator and changed the ground so that it is more similar to the true world.

How to Run It in your Workspace

Install sudo apt install ros-melodic-desktop-full and sudo apt install python-catkin-tools
Clone this repository to an existing ROS Workspace initialized with catkin init
Run cd BITFSDsim/src/fssim/ from home.
Run sudo bash Download_model.sh to download gazebo models or the default website will stop the simulation.
Run catkin build
Source the workspace
After successful building, run the simulator with roslaunch fssim auto_fssim.launch. RVIZ window will start. NOTE: You might need to untick and tick FSSIM Track and RobotModel in RVIZ in order to load the STL files. NOTE: This [Wrn] [ModelDatabase.cc:339] Getting models from[http://gazebosim.org/models/]. This may take a few seconds. will stop the simulation. Check step.2, or disconnect the Internet and go on.
The terminal will inform you what is happening. The loading time takes around 20 seconds. When Sending RES GO show up in the terminal, you can start controlling the vehicle with /fssim/cmd topic.

Combine it with simple FSD skeleton Framework and drive a lap

Install sudo apt install ros-melodic-desktop-full and sudo apt install python-catkin-tools
Clone the BITFSD Algorithm.
For more details, please go to fsd_algorithm package.

Features

This simulator is targeted for FSD competition, thus it contains some of the real-car safety features
- RES (Remote Emergency Stop): The vehicle will not be able to be controlled if a /fssim/res_state/push_button = true is not sent. On the other side, if /fssim/res_state/emergency = true is send, the vehicle will stop immediately. If you start FSSIM with roslaunch fssim auto_fssim.launch or through fssim_interface this is done automatically.
- Leaving Track: If the simulation is started with auto_fssim.launch, an automated RES person is launched. This means, if the vehicle exists the track with all four wheels, RES-emergency will be send and the simulation will exit itself
FSSIM does not simulate the RAW sensors! It uses a cone-sensor-model instead. This means a cone observations around the vehicle are simulated with numerous noise-models. The configuration file for this sensors can be found in fssim_description/cars/gotthard/config/sensors.yaml. Thanks to this simplification it is real-time capable
FSSIM does not use GAZEBO Physics Engine to simulate the vehicle. Instead, it uses a basic vehicle model which is discretized with Euler Forward discretization and overwrites the model pose. This feature allows the simulated model to match closely the real world car.
Automated Run of multiple scenarios with different configurations and save logs as well as report.
Lap-time counter

Known problems

The update rate of TF between wheels and main chassis is too low or too rough. This causes jumps of wheels at higher speeds in RViZ. This influences only the visualization and not the functionality.

Example