Add the possibility to use multipleanalogsensorsclient and multipleanalogsensorsremapper also in Gazebo

[S-Dafarra]

Recently, on the robot, we started using the multipleanalogsensorsremapper: https://github.com/robotology/robots-configuration/tree/master/iCubGenova04/wrappers/inertials

The corresponding plugin seems also available in GazeboYarpPlugins: https://github.com/robotology/gazebo-yarp-plugins/blob/master/plugins/imu/include/gazebo/IMU.hh

How should I modify the urdf and the configuration files in order to have a parallel setup also in Gazebo?

@prashanthr05 @nunoguedelha @traversaro

[traversaro]

Hi @S-Dafarra, as far as I remember (unfortunately) the plugins in gazebo-yarp-plugins are not ready to simulate more then one IMU exposed in as a single multipleanalogserver device, as it happens on the robot. Recently @Nicogene worked in adding support to the gazebo_yarp_imu device robotology/gazebo-yarp-plugins#443 .

To actually support this case there are different possible routes, the fastest at the moment to me seems to create (or modify starting from either the gazebo_yarp_inertialMtb or gazebo_yarp_inertialMtbPart plugins) a model plugin called gazebo_yarp_multipleimu gazebo_yarp_distributedinertial that retrieves the measure of multiple IMU Gazebo sensors, and expose it over the network via multipleanalogsensorsserver . Note that in this case you would not use directly a multipleanalogsensorsremapper device, but you would basically emulate it via the configuration file of this gazebo_yarp_distributedinertial device, in which you would pass the IMUs to use.

Other most advanced strategies (but that may be trickier to implement) would create a plugin to reuse the existing gazebo_yarp_imu implementation, and then access the pointer of the existing YARP devices to combine them in a multipleanalogsensorsremapper that then publishes its measures via a multipleanalogsensorsserver. The most radical example of this strategy is robotology/gazebo-yarp-plugins#391 .

@S-Dafarra I am availabe to discuss about this directly if you think someone can commit work on it.

[traversaro]

Other most advanced strategies (but that may be trickier to implement) would create a plugin to reuse the existing gazebo_yarp_imu implementation, and then access the pointer of the existing YARP devices to combine them in a multipleanalogsensorsremapper that then publishes its measures via a multipleanalogsensorsserver. The most radical example of this strategy is robotology/gazebo-yarp-plugins#391 .

robotology/gazebo-yarp-plugins#391 has been solved by robotology/gazebo-yarp-plugins#532 , so now it should be possible to relatively easily reuse the same configuration files used in the real robots, at least for the wrappers.