CENG-407-408-2024-2025-Sentinel-Autonomous-Discovery-Vehicle

Sentinel: Autonomous Discovery Vehicle

Project Description

The Sentinel is designed to autonomously explore and navigate unknown environments with precision. As a compact and highly functional vehicle, its main feature is generating a 3D map of the areas scanned by sensors and cameras. These maps enable the Sentinel to effortlessly identify optimal paths and locate key areas. Additionally, it utilizes object detection algorithms to distinguish between static and dynamic objects, ensuring accurate identification and marking of obstacles or objects on the map. This combination of autonomous mapping and object recognition makes the Sentinel an invaluable tool for exploration in challenging environments, such as war zones or dangerous areas contaminated by chemical or nuclear particles.

Team Members

Team Members	Student Numbers
Burak ATEŞ	202011010
Turgut Utku ALTINKAYA	202011036
Yunus Emre DİNÇEL	202011078
İlteriş SAMUR	202111056
Bayram Alper KILIÇ	202111401

Advisor

• Assist. Prof. Dr. Serdar ARSLAN

Project Website

• https://sentinelvehicle.wordpress.com/

Installation

Computer

• Install the Robot Operating System.

• Install Docker.

• Source ROS dependencies.

  source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash

• Clone the repository.

  git clone https://github.com/CankayaUniversity/ceng-407-408-2024-2025-Sentinel-Autonomous-Discovery-Vehicle.git Sentinel
  
  cd Sentinel

• Initialize submodules.

  git submodule update --init --recursive

• Change to the directory to install computer packages.

  cd sentinel.computer

• Install workspace-specific ROS dependencies.

  rosdep update && rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y

• Create a Python virtual environment and install dependencies (necessary for installing pip-only dependencies).

  python3 -m venv .venv --system-site-packages --symlinks
  
  touch ./.venv/COLCON_IGNORE # Make sure that colcon does not try to build the venv
  
  source .venv/bin/activate
  
  pip3 install -r requirements.txt

• Build ROS packages.

  colcon build

• Start Docker Containers

  docker compose up -d

• Run.

  source install/setup.bash
  
  ros2 launch sentinel robot.launch.py
  # ros2 launch sentinel sim.launch.py # For launching simulation

Vehicle

• Install the Robot Operating System.

• Install Libcamera.

• Install YDLidar-Sdk.

• Source ROS dependencies.

  source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash

• Clone the repository.

  git clone https://github.com/CankayaUniversity/ceng-407-408-2024-2025-Sentinel-Autonomous-Discovery-Vehicle.git Sentinel
  
  cd Sentinel

• Initialize submodules.

  git submodule update --init --recursive

• Change to the directory to install vehicle packages.

  cd sentinel.vehicle

• Install workspace-specific ROS dependencies.

  rosdep update && rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y

• Build ROS packages.

  colcon build

• Run.

  source install/setup.bash
  
  ros2 launch sentinel robot.launch.py

Frontend

See Frontend Installation