cdt_challenge_2021

CDT Challenge 2021: Autonomous exploration with wheeled robots

Contents

• cdt_challenge_2021
• Preliminaries
  • Virtual machine setup
  • SSH keys and GitHub
  • Git installation
  • Clone this repository
• Basic software installation
  • Normal installation
  • Step-by-step
  • Updating the software
    • Updating this package
    • Updating the system packages
    • Updating .bashrc
    • Fixing elevation mapping
• Running the code

Preliminaries

Virtual machine setup

(If you are using a laptop with Ubuntu 18.04, you can skip this step)

• Download VMWare Player (recommended choice) or VirtualBox.
  • The VMWare file is a .bundle file. You need to give it execution permission using chmod +x VMware-Player-16.1.0-17198959.x86_64.bundle
  • Then, you can simply run the file with sudo ./VMware-Player-16.1.0-17198959.x86_64.bundle
• Get an image of Ubuntu 18.04
• Install Ubuntu 18.04 in the virtual machine following these instructions: VMWare, VirtualBox
• When installing Ubuntu, use the user cdt2021 and password cdt for simplicity
• In order to use fullscreen, you need to install VMware tools
  • Start up the CDT virtual machine
  • Log in to the cdt2021 user
  • Go to the menu bar and click on Virtual Machine -> Install VMware tools
  • A cd drive should appear on your desk called VM Ware tools
  • Inside there should be a tar.gz file. Uncompress it in the desktop
  • Open a terminal, go to the folder you just uncompressed, and run sudo ./vmware-install.pl. Follow the instructions to install the tools (spoiler alert, are a lot)
  • You should be able to resize the screen as expected after it finishes

Once you're done with the installation, follow the instructions below to setup the machine.

SSH keys and GitHub

You need to generate a SSH key and added it to your Github account. This applies to both laptops and virtual machines, since it's required to clone the repositories automatically.

• Generate the key
• Add it to your account

Git installation

Since you need to clone this repository in your machine, you'll need git:

sudo apt install git

Clone this repository

In your home directory, run the following:

mkdir git
cd git
git clone git@github.com:ori-drs/cdt_challenge_2021.git

Basic software installation

Normal installation

Run the following in the git folder:

./cdt_challenge_2021/cdt_superbuild/build_scripts/install.sh

Step-by-step

If the previous script fails at some point, it will indicate which step failed. You can run each step independently as:

./cdt_challenge_2021/cdt_superbuild/build_scripts/setup-1-build-environment.sh
./cdt_challenge_2021/cdt_superbuild/build_scripts/setup-2-install-ros.sh
./cdt_challenge_2021/cdt_superbuild/build_scripts/setup-3-cdt-packages.sh
./cdt_challenge_2021/cdt_superbuild/build_scripts/setup-4-update-submodules.sh
./cdt_challenge_2021/cdt_superbuild/build_scripts/setup-5-init-workspace.sh
./cdt_challenge_2021/cdt_superbuild/build_scripts/setup-6-build.sh
./cdt_challenge_2021/cdt_superbuild/build_scripts/setup-7-edit-bashrc.sh

Updating the software

If you are doing a fresh installation, you can skip this step.

The instructions below are only relevant if you cloned the repository long time ago.

Updating this package

cd ~/git/cdt_challenge_2021
git pull
cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin build

Updating the system packages

cd ~/git
./cdt_challenge_2021/cdt_superbuild/build_scripts/setup-3-cdt-packages.sh

Updating .bashrc

cd ~/git
./cdt_challenge_2021/cdt_superbuild/build_scripts/setup-7-edit-bashrc.sh
source ~/.bashrc

Fixing elevation mapping

Crashes in the elevation were due to issues in the lidar plugins used in Gazebo. This can be fixed by compiling the lidar plugin:

Clone the velodyne_simulator package into your git folder

git clone --branch 1.0.12 https://bitbucket.org/DataspeedInc/velodyne_simulator.git

Then go to your src folder in your catkin_ws folder and symlink it:

roscd $CATKIN_WORKSPACE
cd src
ln -s ../../git/velodyne_simulator .

Build the code:

catkin build velodyne_gazebo_plugins

Add the following line to your .bashrc file:

export GAZEBO_PLUGIN_PATH=$CATKIN_WORKSPACE/devel/lib

Source .bashrc and try to run the launch_all.launch again.

Running the code

Before running everything, source the setup.bash file:

source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash

To launch everything (simulation and basic stack), you must run:

roslaunch jackal_runtime_cdt launch_all.launch

This will launch Gazebo (without the GUI), Rviz with a basic visualization, and a joystick interface. You should be able to see the lidar scans as well as the lidar elevation map. If you drive the robot with the joystick, the elevation map should be filled in as you go.