The Future of Robot Rescue Simulation - Software day 1

Installation requirements

The workshop has several tutorials and hands-on assignments, which require simulation and programming environments. This page describes the software-packages which should be installed on your computer for the first day of the workshop.

What is needed to be prepared for the workshop, is Linux laptop with Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS (Xenial Xerus 64bits), with ROS Kinetic and Gazebo7. We assume that you installed those packages following these instructions.

Software for day 1

What is needed for today is the UsarSimRos node, the GazeboUsarSim plugin and the Robotics System Toolbox from Matlab.

Follow the instructions from the sourceforge page:
- cd ~
- mkdir catkin_usarsimros_ws
- cd catkin_usarsimros_ws
- mkdir src
- cd src
- source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.sh
- catkin_init_workspace
- cd ..
- catkin_make
- source ~/catkin_usarsimros_ws/devel/setup.sh
- cd src
- git clone git://git.code.sf.net/p/usarsimros/code usarsimros-code
- cd usarsimros-code/usarsim_inf
- wget https://staff.fnwi.uva.nl/a.visser/research/roboresc/2016/package.xml
- mv CMakeLists.txt CMakeLists.hydro
- wget https://staff.fnwi.uva.nl/a.visser/research/roboresc/2016/CMakeLists.txt
- wget https://staff.fnwi.uva.nl/a.visser/research/roboresc/2016/msg_gen.zip
- unzip msg_gen.zip
- cd ../../..
- catkin_make
Follow the instructions from this page to install the GazeboUsarSim plugin:
- sudo apt-get install protobuf-compiler
- cd ~
- git clone https://github.com/m-shimizu/RoboCupRescuePackage/
- cd ~/RoboCupRescuePackage
- source ./.bashrc.USARGazebo
- mkdir build
- cd build
- vi ../CMakeLists.txt and uncomment add_compile_options(-std=gnu++11)
- cmake ..
- make
- cd ~/.gazebo/models
- git clone https://github.com/m-shimizu/robocup2012_rvrl_pre1/
- cd robocup2012_rvrl_pre1/meshes
- unzip RC2012Pre1.dae.zip
- cd ~/RoboCupRescuePackage
- uncomment line 32-35 from USARGazebo.world
- cd ~
- git clone https://github.com/m-shimizu/JVRC_task_models/
- cd ~/JVRC_task_models
- mv JVRC_* ~/.gazebo/models
- cd ~
- rm -r ~/JVRC_task_models
Free access to Matlab, including the Robotics System Toolbox, could be requested following this offer.
- Fill in as name of the competition 'The future of robot rescue simulation Workshop'.
- The license will be associated with a MathWorks account, and you can activate the license at MathWorks License Center by the 'Associate License' button at the upper-right.
- After activation you can use the 'Download Products' button at the License Details tab.
- Search in Matlab central for the TurtleBot app.

Tutorial

The first tutorial is about making the connection to Gazebo with an USARSim arena by Masaru Shimizu, Chukyo University, Aichi, Japan In principal, the tutorial in presentation follows the online tutorial of controlling your robot from Matlab. The two code walkthroughts are recorded in ROSDemoWorkshop.mlx> and TurtleBotCommunicationExample.mlx, but this is a format which is only supported in R2016a (released March 8, 2016).

Alternative versions

The packages used during this workshop have complex dependencies. It is well possible that you don't have to downgrade from ROS Gravy or upgrade from Gazebo5 and still be succesfull in the workshop. Actually, such alternative installation could give usefull information on the sensitivities and dependencies of the packages, so please record your experience. Yet, our experience is that the least time is wasted when you upgrade/downgrade to the versions which are recommended here.

Workshop Program

Tutorial Preparation

Masaru Shimizu, Chukyo University, Aichi, Japan
Lauren Tabolinsky & Arie Weeren - MathWorks
Nate Koenig - Open Source Robotics Foundation
Satoshi Kochiyama - New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, Japan
Stefan Kohlbrecher - TU Darmstad, Germany
Ricardo Tellez - The Construct Sim
Arnoud Visser, Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands