NeRF-based Path Planning for Planetary Rovers

This repo contains code for Neural Radiance Field (NeRF)-based path planning for planetary rovers using AirSim Unreal Engine simulation. Developed and tested on Windows 10.

We train a NeRF of the extraterrestrial surface based on prior imagery, and store it on the rover for onboard use as a global map. The rover runs a local planner for collision avoidance and global planner for high-level waypoint routing, and we use the NeRF map to update the global costmap based on local observations.

Setup

Clone the GitHub repository:

git clone https://github.com/adamdai/rover_nerf_planning.git

Create and activate conda environment:

conda create -n rover_nerf python=3.8   
conda activate rover_nerf

Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt
pip install -e .

Install pytorch (https://pytorch.org/get-started/locally/), may need to reboot after first line

sudo apt install -y nvidia-cuda-toolkit
pip3 install torch torchvision torchaudio

NeRF training

We use nerfstudio for NeRF training, rendering, evaluation, and other utilities. We collect imagery of the environment using AirSim,

For access to the trained NeRF, download the checkpoint file.

Jupyter notebooks

The /notebooks folder contains python notebooks for testing different parts of the pipeline.

• autonav_test.ipynb
• cost_update.ipynb

AirSim Moon simulation

We use AirSim and Unreal Engine for simulation.

Install Unreal Engine (Windows or Linux)

Follow steps to install Unreal Engine 4.27 (https://microsoft.github.io/AirSim/build_windows/#install-unreal-engine)

Install AirSim.

Follow steps: https://microsoft.github.io/AirSim/build_windows/#build-airsim

• Install Visual Studio 2022

For AirSim, we need to create a separate conda environment, since there is some incompatibility with the jupyter and airsim package dependencies.

conda create -n airsim_rover python=3.8
conda activate airsim_rover
pip install -r airsim_requirements.txt
pip install -e .

Setup custom Unreal environment

1. Create new Unreal project: Game > Blank > C++. Then close project.
2. Acquire Unreal environment: https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/moon-landscape-01
3. From Epic games launcher, add "Moon Landscape" to newly created project. Then re-open project.
4. In Edit > Project Settings > Default Maps, set Editor Startup Map and Game Startup Map to "Moon_Landscape"
5. Follow steps in https://microsoft.github.io/AirSim/unreal_custenv/ to add AirSim to project

Run simulation

1. Open Unreal project
2. Press play to start simulation
3. Open terminal and activate airsim_rover environment
4. Run run_sim.py