TRAXSTER using ROS (Robot Operating System) and V-REP (robot simulator)

Description

This is a project is an effort in exploring the use of gmapping for SLAM using a Traxster mobile robot and Kinect.

• Control the mobile robot in the vrep simulation environment with keyboard
• roslaunch ros nodes

TODOS

• Build 2D grid map with laserscan data via rviz
• Image Recognition and localization
• Visual Servoing (follow the yellow ball)

SETUP

ROS install and catkin

1. Install catkin: http://wiki.ros.org/catkin
2. Install ROS: http://wiki.ros.org/ROS/Installation
3. Configure and create catkin workspace

$ echo "source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
$ source ~/.bashrc
$ mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src
$ cd ~/catkin_ws/
$ catkin_make
$ echo "source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
$ source ~/.bashrc

4. Install the needed ros packages

#install hector slam
$ sudo apt install ros-kinetic-gmapping-slam

#install teleop key
$ sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-teleop-twist-keyboard

Install V-REP

1. Dowload V-REP: http://www.coppeliarobotics.com/downloads.html

$ cp V-REP_PRO_EDU_V3_4_0_Linux.tar.gz ~
$ tar -zvxf ~/V-REP_PRO_EDU_V3_4_0_Linux.tar.gz
$ mkdir ~/V-REP
$ mv ~/V-REP_PRO_EDU_V3_4_0_Linux ~/V-REP

TO inteface ROS with V-REP

• Follow this link http://analuciacruz.me/articles/RosInterface_kinetic/ coustesy of Ana Lucia Cruz Ruiz

RUN

1. open one terminal and run $ roscore
2. open another terminal and run $ . ~/V-REP/vrep.sh

Please pay attention to these message and if you see

Plugin ’RosInterface’: loading...
Plugin ’RosInterface’: load succeeded.

3. open traxster_description/scenes/traxster_real.ttt in vrep's scene and press the start bottom
4. control the robot by keyboard

$ rosrun teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard.py

5. launch the ros nodes to visualize in rviz

$ roslaunch traxster_2dnav traxster_slam.launch

Credits

• Chien-Sheng Jason Wu for using his ros-vrep project readme to write the readme for this project