vitirover_ws

Welcome to the GitHub repository for the Vitirover academic robot! This repository contains the ROS1 workspace needed to simulate and interact with the Vitirover in a virtual environment. Follow the instructions below to get started.

Prerequisites

Ensure you have ROS Noetic installed on your system. This workspace has been tested and confirmed to work with ROS Noetic.

Note : the Jetson nano only supports ROS Melodic. But we have chosen to give instructions for ROS using the most up-to-date ROS1 version, Noetic, because most users will use their own development computer to use gazebo and to develop software in a confortable environment.

These steps have been tested for Noetic, but since we use only basic ROS functions, it should also work for Melodic without much change. If any problem is found, we will document them here, feel free to open an issue or a pull-request.

Setup

First, clone this repository into your desired directory. If you haven't already created a directory for the Vitirover workspace, you can do so by following these steps:

source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash

Clone our repository:

git clone https://github.com/vitirover/vitirover_ws.git

Then, build the catkin workspace:

cd ~/vitirover_ws/
catkin_make

and source it:

source devel/setup.bash

Install dependencies

Before starting the simulation, make sure all the necessary dependencies are installed:

sudo apt install ros-noetic-joint-state-publisher ros-noetic-ros-control ros-noetic-ros-controllers ros-noetic-teleop-twist-keyboard

Start the simulation in Gazebo

With the workspace set up and dependencies installed, you're ready to launch the Vitirover simulation:

roslaunch mobile_robot gazebo_sim.launch

You should see the robot in Gazebo like this:

Testing

In a new terminal, after re-sourcing ros and your workspace, you can send velocity commands to the robot's right rear wheel using:

rostopic pub -1 /vitirover/right_rear_wheel_velocity_controller/command std_msgs/Float64 "data: 1.0"

Using cmd_vel topic

Open a terminal and navigate to this script using:

cd ~/vitirover_ws/src/mobile_robot/scripts

and run:

python command_robot_gazebo.py

Open an other terminal and run

rosrun teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard.py

Use the commands on your keyboard (u,i,o...) to move the robot in Gazebo. NB: Reduce the linear and angular for a smooth motion, i.e. 0.3 m/s for linear velocity and 0.3 rad/s for the angular velocity.

Move the robot

In order to control the robot with the cmd_vel topic, open a terminal and start roscore:

cd ~/vitirover_ws/
source devel/setup.bash
roscore

In an other terminal, navigate to vitirover_bringup with and start the script to command the wheels with ROS:

cd ~/vitirover_ws/
source devel/setup.bash
cd /mobile_robot/vitirover_bringup
python3 command_ROS.py

In a third terminal:

cd ~/vitirover_ws/
source devel/setup.bash
rosrun teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard.py

Use rviz

Rviz allows you to visualize your physical robot and the sensors in the same graphical interface.

Open an other terminal and run

roslaunch mobile_robot rviz.launch

You see you robot in rviz like this:

Support

For questions, issues, or feature requests, please open an issue on this GitHub repository. We're here to help make your experience with the Vitirover academic robot as smooth as possible.