Turtlebot 3 Autorace simulation

Turtlebot 3 Autorace simulation is a ROS package which allows to run turtlebot3_autorace from ROBOTIS-GIT in simulation. It is fully parametrizable and customizable. Next will follow the instructions to getting started with standard examples and to customize trucks to test the package.

Link to the video:

Getting Started

It is supposed you have Ubuntu 16.04 with ROS Kinetic installed.

First of all you need to install dependent packages for TurtleBot3 control. Do the followings command in order to install it.

sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-joy ros-kinetic-teleop-twist-joy ros-kinetic-teleop-twist-keyboard ros-kinetic-laser-proc ros-kinetic-rgbd-launch ros-kinetic-depthimage-to-laserscan ros-kinetic-rosserial-arduino ros-kinetic-rosserial-python ros-kinetic-rosserial-server ros-kinetic-rosserial-client ros-kinetic-rosserial-msgs ros-kinetic-amcl ros-kinetic-map-server ros-kinetic-move-base ros-kinetic-urdf ros-kinetic-xacro ros-kinetic-compressed-image-transport ros-kinetic-rqt-image-view ros-kinetic-gmapping ros-kinetic-navigation ros-kinetic-interactive-markers

Next you need the packages with the turtlebot robot model, turlebot simulation environment and the turtlebot autorace software. In order to get these do the followings commands:

Move in your src folder on your ROS workspace. In these README will be used catkin_ws as the workspace name.

cd ~/catkin_ws/src/

Clone all the repositories listed below:

git clone https://github.com/ROBOTIS-GIT/turtlebot3_msgs.git
git clone https://github.com/ROBOTIS-GIT/turtlebot3.git
git clone https://github.com/ROBOTIS-GIT/turtlebot3_simulations.git
git clone https://github.com/ROBOTIS-GIT/turtlebot3_autorace.git

If you do not cloned this repository yet:

git clone https://github.com/falfab/turtlebot3_autorace_simulation.git

And build:

cd $HOME/catkin_ws
catkin_make

This repository contains a folder named world which contains the gazebo simulation environments. In order to makes it work you need to copy the environments inside the gazebo models directory. In order to do that do the following commands:

roscd turtlebot3_autorace_simulation
cp -r ./world/turtlebot3_autorace_track* $HOME/.gazebo/models
cp -r ./world/*_logo $HOME/.gazebo/models
cp -r ./world/chess_flag $HOME/.gazebo/models

If you do not have .gazebo directory into your home it is because you never do not opened gazebo.

Now these models will be avaible inside shapes models.

This repository use a custom model of turtlebot3. This model is the turtlebot3 burger pi. In order to have it inside the simulation environment it has to be added to the models description in the turtlebot3_descripion package. The 3D model and robot description is inside the urdf folder. In order to add it to the choosable models do the following steps:

cp ./urdf/turtlebot3_burger_pi* $HOME/catkin_ws/src/turtlebot3/turtlebot3_description/urdf/.

Now to tell which model you want to use you need to set the variable with this command:

export TURTLEBOT3_MODEL=burger_pi

It is suggested to add the command below to your .bashrc or you will need to export the variable everytime a new terminal is opened.

Start Autorace

Let's get autodriving!

Simulation environment

In order to launch the simulation environment, a ROS launch file is provided. Do the following command:

roslaunch turtlebot3_autorace_simulation gazebo.launch

This launch file can takes the following arguments:

x_pos: set the x position of the robot.
x_pos: set the x position of the robot.
x_pos: set the x position of the robot.
track: choose the track name. In this repository track1 and track2 are provided.
use_gui: choose if gazebo has to load the gui.

Autorace nodes

The robot need also the autorace nodes which detect the lane and gives the needed velocity command. The autorace nodes are composed by three subnodes which do the image projection and then detect the lanes. Also in this case a ROS launch file is provided:

roslaunch turtlebot3_autorace_simulation autorace.launch

Now the robot will move and will follow the lanes.

Robot Visualization

A RViz launch file is provided:

roslaunch turtlebot3_autorace_simulation rviz.launch

Circuit race with logo detection

In order to makes the turtlebot perform a race in a circuit with logo detection do the following steps:

roslaunch turtlebot3_autorace_simulation circuit.launch
roslaunch turtlebot3_autorace_simulation autorace.launch

By default gazebo is launched with no gui, if you want to see robot visualization do this:

roslaunch turtlebot3_autorace_simulation config_file:=circuit.rviz