Selector plugin for selecting the planner and the controller

[padhupradheep]

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Basic Info

Info	Please fill out this column
Ticket(s) this addresses	#3269)
Primary OS tested on	Ubuntu 22.04
Robotic platform tested on	Neobotix MPO-700
Does this PR contain AI generated software?	No

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Description of contribution in a few bullet points

Now we can select the controller and the planner plugins on the fly

Description of documentation updates required from your changes

Maybe RViz plugins after all needs a documentation somewhere?

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Future work that may be required in bullet points

• Goal checkers and smoothers could be added to the selection list if needed

For Maintainers:

• Check that any new parameters added are updated in navigation.ros.org
• Check that any significant change is added to the migration guide
• Check that any new features OR changes to existing behaviors are reflected in the tuning guide
• Check that any new functions have Doxygen added
• Check that any new features have test coverage
• Check that any new plugins is added to the plugins page
• If BT Node, Additionally: add to BT's XML index of nodes for groot, BT package's readme table, and BT library lists

[padhupradheep]

Ah right forgot about signing the commits.. It's been bit long since I gave in a PR.

Also just remembered that I also need to add the defaults in all our default BTs. Will update that too..

[mergify]

@padhupradheep, your PR has failed to build. Please check CI outputs and resolve issues.
You may need to rebase or pull in main due to API changes (or your contribution genuinely fails).

[SteveMacenski]

Generally looks good to me! What's this tool look like? 😄

[SteveMacenski]

Also, seems easy enough to add the smoother / goal checker / progress checkers here too! Nice, simple tool, I like it!

[padhupradheep]

Video demo:
Here is a video demo

Also, seems easy enough to add the smoother / goal checker / progress checkers here too! Nice, simple tool, I like it!

Shall I add those too?

[SteveMacenski]

Shall I add those too?

Please!

[SteveMacenski]

Progress checker too ❤️

I think then its just the BT updates and perhaps this is good for testing / merging? What do you think?

[padhupradheep]

Progress checker too

There is no BT node for that as far as I checked. We can use the dynamic reconf server for it but that would be something unique and really won't fit to the scope of this PR.

I think then its just the BT updates and perhaps this is good for testing / merging? What do you think?

Yes, almost done! I need to update the docs about the updates in the BT and probably you can give it a swing when you get some time and we are all set for the merge once after that.

[SteveMacenski]

There is no BT node for that as far as I checked.

Oh huh, that must be an oversight. OK.

Yes, please update the docs to match!

[SteveMacenski]

Pending docs!

[padhupradheep]

Shall I add this plugin as default in nav2 bringup ?

Since it's more of a development tool, I feel it would be better if the user selects it by hand when required.

[SteveMacenski]

Yeah that sounds great! Though not in the same spot / scale as your gif. Above or below the Nav2 plugin with similar button spacing / scale as that

[padhupradheep]

The older configuration does not seem to fit the complete width of RViz (the panel that has the fps just disappears, because of that), even resizing doesn't help much.

That's why thought would do an horizontal arrangement as shown below.

bit more compact version..

Would this work?

[SteveMacenski]

Yeah that new 2x2 version works, though why not have the drop down on the same line as the label instead of a new line? Either way works. I leave it to your discretion / eye

If you're going to make a new gif with the format, try to use not just FollowPath and FollowPath2, but how about FollowPath and AvoidObstacles or something else with different modality implications.

[padhupradheep]

why not have the drop down on the same line as the label instead of a new line

I tried it yesterday, It felt cramped by this way.

I'd stick to the other version..

[padhupradheep]

Just leaving a short note on having the selector plugin has default in the rviz bringup. There is some sort of race condition that does not allow the selector plugin to populate atleast one of the component's combo boxes, atleast once in ten instances.

[SteveMacenski]

There is some sort of race condition that does not allow the selector plugin to populate atleast one of the component's combo boxes, atleast once in ten instances.

Do you see your error log about the server not being up yet? Can you change the auto parameters = parameter_client->get_parameters({plugin_type}); line to use the API which would give more feedback on failure?

It would be good to know where this is happening so we can see what might need to be retried / delayed to get it to work deterministically. 1/10 failures is not something we could merge :( For example, you could have that timer trigger repeatedly at your 200ms (I assume that 200 is ms) until it works properly and log an error each time it fails to get the parameters and waiting for the servers to be ready. Don't cancel until successful. That wouldn't delay rviz bringup either!

A-OK on the layout, it looks good!

[padhupradheep]

Issue is fixed! Thanks for the suggestion! 👍

[SteveMacenski]

CI had error I assume isn't related to this PR, but retriggering to check.

In the meantime, anything else you want to do before I test and merge?

[padhupradheep]

In the meantime, anything else you want to do before I test and merge?

Well, I just added the progress_checker too. I just updated from 2x2 to 3x2 configuration, with slight changes to the way combo boxes would be placed.

Now I think, it's ready to be tested.

[SteveMacenski]

CI had error I assume isn't related to this PR, but retriggering to check.

Huh, your PR is regularly triggering these failures. Can you reproduce locally? Maybe try pulling in main?

[padhupradheep]

I already did a rebase early today.. not sure what's causing the issue. Let me check..

[SteveMacenski]

Beyond that, I tested it locally and looks good to me

[padhupradheep]

My mistake, somehow messed up the commit while fixing the DCO. I just was following the recommendation it was giving out, but somehow it broke my changes 🤷‍♂️

[padhupradheep]

https://app.circleci.com/pipelines/github/ros-planning/navigation2/10966/workflows/2b3de681-a592-4539-866f-bcfe9e88dedc/jobs/34400/tests

Now it seems to be the test_spin_behavior_fake.missing_result and test_drive_on_heading_recovery.missing_result

[SteveMacenski]

I was messing around there recently, but it all passed on my CI jobs and I saw that main was working too after merge. Maybe increment your cache to v20 in the 3x places in the circleci file to break it all? If that still fails, I'll take that as an action item to look into, I won't block you further with it.

[padhupradheep]

v20 didn't help either..

please let me know, if there is something else that I can try to sort it outt.

[SteveMacenski]

Not your problem, probably me. If you wanted to take a look at it, the more the merrier 😉

Want to post on discourse with your new feature + gif? I think that's worthy of highlighting!

[padhupradheep]

Not your problem, probably me. If you wanted to take a look at it, the more the merrier 😉

😄

Want to post on discourse with your new feature + gif? I think that's worthy of highlighting!

Oh! Sure can do that.. 👍

[padhupradheep]

It took me one whole year to eventually get on this PR and get it up.. 😵‍💫

I'll clear #3347 too..

If you have anything else, feel free to tag me in and I promise it would be faster this time around.

[SteveMacenski]

Thanks and will do!