Flyappy Autonomy Test Game

This repository contains the coding test for the Flyability Autonomy team.

Game Description

Flyappy is in trouble again! This time it went into space and landed in an asteroid belt. If Flyappy collides with the asteroids it would be fatal. Luckily Flyappy remembered his laser scanner that provides distance measurements. It will give you its velocity and the laserscans in return for an acceleration input. Flyappy only asks for 60 seconds of your guidance. Help Flyappy go through as many asteroid lines as possible before the time runs out!

Getting Started

Setup the running environment

This game has been tested with Ubuntu 20.04 running ROS Noetic and Python 3.8.10.

There are two recommended options for running the game. Either download the VirtualBox image that comes with a complete Ubuntu 20.04 setup or add the necessary packages to your system to compile and run the game.

Option 1 - Using VirtualBox

First install VirtualBox on your system VirtualBox wiki link.

Then download the Ubuntu 20.04 image that we have preconfigured with ROS and the necessary packages Image link.

Once downloaded add the image to your VirtualBox and boot up Ubuntu. The username and password are both flyatest.

Note: You might have issues and latencies using VirtualBox, depending on your system and your OS.

Option 2 - Using your system

If you already have Ubuntu 20.04 on your system, great. If not, you can either install it on your machine (dual-boot or full installation) or boot from an USB flash drive. You can follow Ubuntu tutorial: Install Ubuntu desktop. If your system is running Windows 11, you can maybe try Ubuntu tutorial: Install Ubuntu on WSL2 on Windows 11 with GUI support (not tested).

Make sure ROS Noetic is installed by following the ROS install guide.

Make sure Pygame for Python3 is installed:

sudo apt install python3-pygame

Setup the workspace

Open a terminal and run:

mkdir flyappy_ws
cd flyappy_ws

Clone the repository in the source of the workspace:

git clone https://github.com/Flyability/flyappy_autonomy_test_public.git src/flyappy_autonomy_test_public

Compilation

At the root of the workspace, run the catkin_make command:

catkin_make --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DBUILD_TESTING=OFF

Run The Game

After compilation, at the root of the workspace, source the workspace in the terminal you want to run the game:

source devel/setup.bash

There are two ROS launch files depending on if you want to run the game with C++ or Python autonomy code (whatever you prefer).

For Python, run:

roslaunch flyappy_autonomy_code flyappy_autonomy_code_py.launch

For C++, run:

roslaunch flyappy_autonomy_code flyappy_autonomy_code_cpp.launch

A GUI will become visible with the game start screen. For now the autonomy code does not do anything other than printing out some laser ray and end game information. To start the game, press any arrow key.

You can then add velocity in a wanted direction by pressing the arrow keys ←↑↓→.

Notice that it is not possible to go backwards and if Flyappy hits an obstacle the game stops.

Automate Flyappy

Now that we have gotten familiar with the game, we want to control Flyappy autonomously. To do this, a Python and a C++ template have been provided.

Modifying the code

The templates are located in the flyappy_autonomy_code folder. Be aware that you are not meant to change the files in flyappy_main_game.

For using python, modify the file flyappy_autonomy_code_node.py in the scripts folder, and add any Python files if needed.

For using C++, modify (or add) any files in the include, src, tests folders and, if needed, the CMakeLists.txt.

Take your pick.

To get the state of Flyappy, its velocity and laserscans data are published on 2 ROS topics. An acceleration command can be given on a ROS topic for actuating Flyappy.

The callbacks and publisher are provided in the code.

Handing In

To hand in your game solution, please send your flyappy_autonomy_test_public repository in a ZIP file by email.

Other Information

I hope you will have fun solving this little game. If you have any questions or need other game information either write us or look around in the flyappy_main_game folder. Here is some other helpful information for solving the task.

• Scaling: 1 pixel = 0.01 meter
• Game and sensor update rates: 30 fps
• The velocity measurement is noise free
• Max acceleration x: 3.0 m/s^2
• Max acceleration y: 35.0 m/s^2
• Axis convention: x →, y ↑
• LaserScan message definition

Value	Unit	Topic
Velocity	m/s	/flyappy_vel
Acceleration	m/s^2	/flyappy_acc
LaserScan	Radians, meters	/flyappy_laser_scan
GameEnded	No unit	/flyappy_game_ended