Pionner_bci

ROS interface with bci system through sockets.

How to use

1. Default use with a robot equiped with a lms1xx laser:

Execute the following line in the commandline:

$ roslaunch pioneer_bci bci_mover.launch

This will use the pionner_bringup package to load ROSARIA and the LMS1xx node.

2. Default use without using the lms1xx laser:

Execute the following line in the commandline:

$ 

This will use the pionner_bringup package to load ROSARIA with a minimal mode.

3. Use with other types of robots:

The package should work with any type of ROS compatible robot as long as the right topics are specified.

See the section More parameters for more information.

4. Use in simulation:

Execute the following lines in the commandline to launch a turtlebot3 simulation (need to have the turtlebot3 package installed):

$ export TURTLEBOT3_MODEL=burger
$ roslaunch pioneer_bci simulation.launch

Commands

The bci_mover command will listen to a socket to recieve direct and speed commands. The format of the commands are two integers in the format AB where:

• A is the direction command (1 to 9)
• B is the speed command (1 to 5)

The following diagram show the output of the direction commands on the orientation of the robot:

The default direction mode is the 1st person mode, this can be changed to 3rd person mode by modifying the config.py file

Parameters

1. Roslaunch parameters:

Roslaunch files accept the following optional arguments.

• ip: socket address (default: localhost)
• port: socket port (default: 12347)
• cmd_vel_topic: name of the cmd_vel topic (default: cmd_vel)
• odom_topic: name of the odometry topic (default: odom)
• laser_topic: name of the laser scan topic (default: scan)
• lms1xx: Either to start LMS1xx node or not (default: true)

Example:

$ roslaunch pioneer_bci bci_mover.launch ip:=192.168.1.1 port:=12347 cmd_vel_topic:=/robot1/cmd_vel

2. Other parameters:

More parameters can be configured in the config.py file.

• angle_error: tolerence for the minium angle error in degrees (default 0.1°)
• move_distance: distance to move forward in meters (default 1)
• obstacle_min_distance: minimum distance for obstacle avoidance (default: 0.6)
• move_forward_at_each_move: Either to move forward after each turn, or only for the forward direction (default False)
• first_person_mode: Either to use the relative angles (1st person mode) or the absolute angles (3rd person mode) (default True)
• speed_reduce_factor: multiplying factor for reducing linear speed. Used to protect the robot from maximum speed (default 0.1)
• slow_down_distance: minimal distance to destination to start reducing speed. Used for avoiding drifting at stop (default 0.2)

Testing

If you want to test the socket locally, launch the python script test_socket.py

Experiments

Tested on ROS 1 Kinetic with P3DX and LMS1XX robot. Should work on all other Pionner-like robots using ROSARIA or P2OS.

Tested also on Gazebo with turtlebot3 simulation.

Aknowledgement

Thanks to LARESI laboratory (University of Sciences and Technology of Oran) for providing the plateform for real-robot experimentations.