Simulated Swarm

About the Project

UCF Senior Design Project Sponsored by Lockheed Martin

Summary: An autonomous swarm of aerial drones(hector quadrotor) that uses object dection(YOLOv5) and pathfinding(explore_lite) to indentify our target, a BB-8 drone.

Youtube Video

Introduction

1. Install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

2. Install ROS-Noetic

sudo apt-get update
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list'
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver 'hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80' --recv-key C1CF6E31E6BADE8868B172B4F42ED6FBAB17C654
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install git
sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-desktop-full
source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash
echo "source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "export GAZEBO_MODEL_PATH=$GAZEBO_MODEL_PATH:~/catkin_ws/src/gazebo_models_worlds_collection/models" >> ~/.bashrc

Open New Terminal

sudo apt install python3-rosdep
rosdep update
sudo rosdep init

Reference: http://wiki.ros.org/noetic/Installation/Ubuntu

3. Create Simulation Workspace

mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src
cd ~/catkin_ws/
catkin_make
source devel/setup.bash

4. Install ROS packages

Use the computer's user name for username

cd ~/catkin_ws/src
sudo git clone https://github.com/HuyPhamG/simulatedswarm.git
sudo apt install ros-noetic-multirobot-map-merge ros-noetic-explore-lite
sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-openslam-gmapping
sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-slam-gmapping
sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-joy
sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-move-base
sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-teleop-twist-keyboard
sudo chmod +rwx simulatedswarm
export GAZEBO_PLUGIN_PATH='pwd':$/opt/ros/noetic/lib/libgazebo_ros_api_plugin.so
sudo chown -R username ~/catkin_ws/src 
cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin_make
source devel/setup.bash

Enable scripts

cd ~/catkin_ws/src/simulatedswarm
chmod u+x world
chmod u+x search
chmod u+x b8

Move scripts to catkin environment

mv -v world ~/catkin_ws/
mv -v search ~/catkin_ws/
mv -v b8 ~/catkin_ws/

Running scripts:

Change into catkin directory

cd ~/catkin_ws 

Run world/navigation/map_merging/spawns_drones

./world

In a NEW terminal

Run drone_take_off/pathfinding/object_dectection/spawns_target

./search

Authors

Huy Pham - Project Manager / Testing environment / Optimizing explore parameters / Scripts - huygphamho@gmail.com

Bryce Hitchcock - Robotic Specialist / Move base / Hector quadrotor / Navigation

Keifer Wheatley - Pathfinding Specialist / Explore_lite / Merge map / Navigation

Raymond Price - Object Dectetion Specialist / YOLOv5 training / Machine learning / Object Dectetion

Daniel Cisneros - Gazebo Simulation Specialist / Simulation environment / Images for training