You can use this command inside the markhor_ws to install the project dependencies. This might not take into account the Gazebo upgrade that we need to do to run the simulation correctly.
rosdep install --from-paths src --rosdistro melodic -y
The ros_package capra_estop is essential to launch markhor. It should be located in the markhor_ws/src directory.
If the module is not there, markhor will not launch and you will see the following error message : Resource not found: capra_estop
- [usb_cam]
- capra_estop
- vectornav
Altough not required, these packages are also expected to be installed alongside markhor. If not present, error messages will appear when launching the robot.
There are multiple launch configurations depending on your needs. The intended use being that you launch them through capra_web_ui's functionality that require the capra_launch_handler installed on the platform. For reference, the terminal commands will also be added to each described configuration.
Note: Make sure you have the repository built & sourced.
markhor_parkour.launch: This launch file launches every movement and camera related nodes.markhor_observation.launch: This launch file aims to launch every sensor equipped and the robot arm with its gripper, ovis in this case.markhor_base.launch: While the two other files are made to be an optimised for competition setup, thebaseversion launches everything simultaneously for demonstration purposes.
You can add two environment variables in your bashrc.
GAZEBO_GUI : Enable/disable the GUI version of gazebo. If you don't want the gazebo gui, you can set it to false. The default value is true. This feature is mainly used for the docker version since docker doesn't have a gui by default.
MARKHOR_SIMULATION : If set to true, it disables the use of the ZED ros wrapper. This way, you don't need to clone/install the ros wrapper/SDK. The default value is false. If you clone the repo and you don't have the SDK, you won't be able to build without the variable set to false.
To use the gazebo simulation you need to update the gazebo version on your machine to at least 9.14, the default version included with melodic should be fine.
For this you need to follow the step-by-step alternative installation method over at : http://gazebosim.org/tutorials?tut=install_ubuntu&cat=install
Some of the dependencies require manual installation, first, install the automatic dependencies using rosdep (running from the workspace root):
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y
To allow the tracks to be controlled with ros, you will need to build the gazebo_ros_tracked_vehicle_interface plugin, it can be found here : https://github.com/lprobsth/gazebo_ros_tracked_vehicle_interface
Clone it in your catkin workspace src folder, then you will need to update the gazebo sources following those steps:
Add the package list:
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo/ubuntu-stable `lsb_release -cs` main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gazebo-stable.list'Add the lists key:
wget https://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo.key -O - | sudo apt-key add -Rebuild the local index:
sudo apt-get updateUpgrade packages - gazebo9 should be included:
sudo apt-get upgradeMAKE SURE YOU DELETE YOUR DEVEL AND BUILD FOLDERS AFTER INSTALLING THE LIBS Then use catkin make and make sure there are no errors.
If you want to use the small house world, you need to clone it in your catkin workspace and do a catkin make.
https://github.com/aws-robotics/aws-robomaker-small-house-world
If using vmware, gazebo won't launch when using 3d acceleration, 3d acceleration is required to get a decent framerate in gazebo to fix it, run the folowing command in the linux VM
echo "export SVGA_VGPU10=0" >> ~/.profileroslaunch markhor_gazebo test_world.launch
Note: Make sure you have the repository built & sourced.
roslaunch markhor_bringup teleop_twist_joy.launch
rosrun teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard.py cmd_vel:=/markhor/diff_drive_controller/cmd_vel
When running the simulation with the tracks you can control the flippers axe with this command:
rostopic pub -1 /markhor/flipper_<fl|fr|rl|rr>_position_controller/command std_msgs/Float64 "data: <0 = 180deg -3 = -180deg>"
In the future this control will be done with a hardware interface.
Docker has been tested on Linux only. All the code has been installed in a docker in a two step process. There is "base" package which contains all the dependencies and files that doesn't change often. Then there is "marhor" package which contains the code of the robot. This way, the building time of "markhor" is shorter.
In github, the "base" package (container) is only updated if the file Dockerfile.base has been changed. The "markhor" package (container) is updated at each commit/push.
If you are running in simulation, you can start gazebo in docker using the following command:
./scripts/start_gazebo.shOnce you have Gazebo or the real robot running, you can start the slam and navigation stack with the following command:
docker-compose upThis will take the online packages and start the system. If ever you want to build the images, you can use the following commands:
./scripts/build_markhor_base.sh
./scripts/build_markhor.shThe first script will build the base image. The second one will build the Markhor image. If you only did change to the code, you can only build the Markhor image. If you did change to the dependencies, you need to build the base image.