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ICRA 2023 BARN Challenge

Solution

• New package "tps_astar" is the project that will be used to solve the challenge.

  catkin_create_pkg tps_astar std_msgs roscpp rospy tf sensor_msgs

• Create submodule for the underlying algorithm library

  mkdir submodules && cd submodules
  git submodule add https://github.com/jlblancoc/selfdriving.git 

• since its already created, get it with

  git submodule update --init --recursive

• Install mrpt requirements

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:joseluisblancoc/mrpt 

  sudo apt-get install libmrpt-dev

  sudo apt-get install -y ros-<distro>-mrpt2 \
                          ros-<distro>-mrpt-msgs \
                          ros-<distro>-marker-msgs

• Add mrpt_navigation as a submodule using

  git submodule add https://github.com/mrpt-ros-pkg/mrpt_navigation.git

• Get the lidar scan from the Jackal robot using mrpt_local_obstacles node using the launch file

• Start publishing the map as a NavMsg using the mrpt_map map_server_node.

• Use the published map for localization node.

Steps are given below

Requirements

If you run it on a local machine without containers:

• ROS version at least Kinetic
• CMake version at least 3.0.2
• Python version at least 3.6
• Python packages: defusedxml, rospkg, netifaces, numpy

If you run it in Singularity containers:

• Go version at least 1.13
• Singularity version at least 3.6.3

The requirements above are just suggestions. If you run into any issue, please contact organizers for help (zfxu@utexas.edu).

Installation

Follow the instructions below to run simulations on your local machines. (You can skip 1-6 if you only use Singularity container)

1. Create a virtual environment (we show examples with python venv, you can use conda instead)

apt -y update; apt-get -y install python3-venv
python3 -m venv $HOME/nav_challenge
export PATH="$HOME/nav_challenge/bin:$PATH"

2. Install Python dependencies

# Activate (JL: needed?? If not, remove this line)
. ~/nav_challenge/bin/activate
pip3 install defusedxml rospkg netifaces numpy

3. Create ROS workspace

mkdir -p /<YOUR_HOME_DIR>/jackal_ws/src
cd /<YOUR_HOME_DIR>/jackal_ws/src

4. Clone this repo and required ros packages:

git clone https://github.com/SRai22/barn-tps-astar-icra2023.git --recursive
git clone https://github.com/jackal/jackal.git
git clone https://github.com/jackal/jackal_simulator.git
git clone https://github.com/jackal/jackal_desktop.git 
git clone https://github.com/utexas-bwi/eband_local_planner.git

5. Install ROS package dependencies:

cd ..
source /opt/ros/$ROS_DISTRO/setup.bash
rosdep init; rosdep update
rosdep install -y --from-paths . --ignore-src --rosdistro=$ROS_DISTRO

6. Build the workspace (if catkin_make fails, try changing -std=c++11 to -std=c++17 in jackal_helper/CMakeLists.txt line 3)

catkin_make
source devel/setup.bash

Run Simulations

source ../../devel/setup.sh
python3 run.py --world_idx 0

If you run it in a Singularity container:

./singularity_run.sh /path/to/image/file python3 run.py --world_idx 0

A successful run should print the episode status (collided/succeeded/timeout) and the time cost in second:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Test finished! <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Navigation collided with time 27.2930 (s)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Test finished! <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Navigation succeeded with time 29.4610 (s)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Test finished! <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Navigation timeout with time 100.0000 (s)