Simulated Robots Package

Minimal simulation for robots using ROS2 and Gazebo(Classic and New). This package provides all of the necesarry files to get a simulated robot up and running. This includes the urdf, parameters and launch files for a robot capable of sensing its enviroment, mapping and localization, as well as autonamous and tele-operated navigation. There are 3 robot types available: 2-wheeled and 4-wheeled differential drive robots, and an ackermann robot. Currently four sensors are implemented: camera, depth camera, and 2D & 3D lidars. The package has been tested to work on humble and foxy, it will be upgraded to work with jazzy in the near future.

Work in progress

The package is still being worked on and in development

Supported on

Currently supported: Ubuntu Version | ROS 2 version | Gazebo -- | -- | -- Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | ROS2 Foxy | Gazebo Classic Ubuntu 22.04 LTS| ROS2 Humble | Gazebo Classic & Gazebo

Support for Ubuntu 24.04 & ROS2 Jazzy is planned.

Note

ROS Iron could work with the humble branches but this has not been tested.

Branches

ROS 2 version	Gazebo version	Branch Name
Foxy	Gazebo Classic	foxy
Humble	Gazebo Classic	humble
Humble	Gazebo Fortress	humble-new-gazebo

Usage

Two Wheeled Differential Drive Robot

The 2-wheeled differential drive robot simulation can be run with the following command:

ros2 launch sim_bot diff_bot.launch.py 

Four Wheel Differential Drive Robot

The 4-wheeled differential drive robot simulation can be run with the following command:

ros2 launch sim_bot four_wheel.launch.py 

Ackermann Robot

The ackermann robot simulation can be run with the following command:

ros2 launch sim_bot ackermann.launch.py 

Controlling the robot

By default the simulation will also launch a tele_op_joy node will be launched that will listen for a controller(xbox, ps4, etc) input. If that is not a suitable option, the robot can also be controlled with this command:

ros2 run teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard 

Launch configurations

The simulation launch files offer serveral launch configurations to modify its behaviour. All of the launch configurations available are listed below:

Config      Options         Default     Description
world:=     <path_to_world> test.world  Relative path to test world                       
headless:=  True/False      False       Gazebo is visualized if False
rviz:=      True/False      True        Rviz is opened if True
slam:=      True/False      True        Localization and mapping is run if True
nav:=       True/False      True        Navigation stack is launched if True

These configurations are the same no matter the robot type. Example launch command with custom arguments:

ros2 launch sim_bot four_wheel.launch.py rviz:=False slam:=False nav:=False

Dependencies

This packages is designed to be require minimal set-up for robot simulations, so i tried to keep the dependencies to a minimum. xacro is used for urdf flexibility, gazebo is the simulator being used, twist-mux is used so that the robot can listen to multiple topics for velocity commands, and slam-toolbox and navigation2 are a commonly used tools to give autonomy to a robot.

sudo apt install -y               \
    ros-humble-xacro              \
    ros-humble-twist-mux          \
    ros-humble-navigation2        \
    ros-humble-slam-toolbox       \
    ros-humble-gazebo-ros-pkgs    \

Install

To use this package please download all of the necesary dependencies first and then follow these steps

mkdir -p sim_ws/src
cd sim_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/Alexander-Levy/sim_bot.git -b humble
cd ..
colcon build --symlink-install

Launch the simulation to test the package

source ./install/setup.bash
ros2 launch sim_bot diff_bot.launch.py 

TODO

Package is still being worked on, however the core funtionality is pretty much done, will be adding some things. - [ ] write some documentation - [ ] update readme