Lab 5 - Follow Bot

Lab 5 for COMSW4733 Computational Aspects of Robotics at Columbia University (Instructor: Prof. Peter Allen).

Introduction

In this lab, you are required to make the turtlebot follow a yellow track and action differently at intersections based on visual information. This is simulated in a Gazebo simulator.

Usage

This ROS package allows you to load 4 different maps in Gazebo.

Prerequisites

The package is tested on python 2.7, ROS Indigo, Ubuntu 14.04 with OpenCV 3.1.0 and numpy 1.15.1.

Commands

To launch turtlebot and map for part 1

roslaunch followbot launch.launch

To launch turtlebot and map for part 2

ROBOT_INITIAL_POSE="-x -2.85 -y -0.27 -Y 1.53" roslaunch followbot launch.launch world_file:=color.world

To launch turtlebot and map for part 3

ROBOT_INITIAL_POSE="-x -2.85 -y -0.27 -Y 1.53" roslaunch followbot launch.launch world_file:=shape.world

To launch the map for extra credits

ROBOT_INITIAL_POSE="-x -2.85 -y -0.27 -Y 1.53" roslaunch followbot launch.launch world_file:=extra.world

Instructions and Rubric

Related code for this lab can be found in Chapter 12 of Programming Robotics with ROS. You should put your scripts under src/.

Part 1: Preparation (20 points)

Use the command to load the map (simple.png) for part 1. You should make the robot follow the yellow track nonstop. You video should show the robot following it for more than 1 round.

Part 2: Map with color markers (40 points)

Use the command to load the map (color.png) for part 2. You should make the robot

follow the yellow track when not at an intersection (10 points)
turn left at the intersection with a green marker(10 points)
turn right at the intersection with a blue marker (10 points)
stop exactly on the red marker (10 points)

Part 3: Map with shape markers (40 points)

Use the command to load the map (shape.png) for part 3. You should make the robot

follow the yellow track when not at an intersection (10 points)
turn left at the intersection with a triangle marker pointing left (10 points)
turn right at the intersection with a triangle marker pointing right (10 points)
stop exactly on the star marker (10 points)

Extra credits: Everything in the same color (10 points)

Use the command to load the map (extra.png) for the extra credit part. You should make the robot behave the same as part 3. There is no partial credit for this part. You either get 0 or 10.

Submission Guidelines

You should submit a lab5_UNI1_UNI2.tar.gz file which contains the modified package followbot that you cloned.
It should include all files that we need to reproduce your video demos.
You should replace everything in the existing README.md with the following sections:
- Usage: how to run your code to reproduce your video demos. Clearly explain the functionalities of all added scripts.
- Method: a brief description of your methods.
- Video: a link to the Youtube video of working demos. You should concatenate demo videos of all parts into one single video.
- Others: anything else you would like to include
Violation of these submission instructions will result in point deduction.

jingxixu/followbot