SODA.Sim ROS2 Plugin

This repository is a plugin for UnrealEngine and an extension of the SODA.Sim plugin to support ROS2 capabilities the for SODA.Sim. This plugin includes all the necessary precompiled ROS2 dependencies (ROS2 workspace) for windows and linux and does not require any other external ROS2 dependencies.
Current version of supported ROS2 is Humble.

Warning

For the Linux version supported only FastDDS RMW.

Warning

This is an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and an experiment to integrate ROS2 with UnrealEngine and SODA.Sim.

Installing and Using

• Make sure the SODA.Sim is installed.
• Clone the plugin to the UnrealEngine Plugins folder or to the your UProject plugins folder. See more information about Working with Plugins in Unreal Engine.
• Download and unzip ROS2 workspaces to the ros2-linux or ros2-windows folders.

For Windows:

• Download and install the Win64 OpenSSL v1.1.1 from this page.

For Linux:

• Install depences (TODO: Which?)

Important

For Linux Only:
If you you using the plugin with Unreal Editor or using the Module Build Mode you must perform $ source ros2-linux/setup.bash every time before start IDE or UnrealEngine or UProject.

What is Currently Implemented

• The Generic Camera Sensor Publisher using sensor_msgs/msg/Image. To use it, add the Generic Pinhole Camera or Generic Fisheye Camera sensor to the vehicle and changle the Publisher Class to ROS2CameraPublisher.
  
• The Generic Lidar Sensor Publisher using sensor_msgs/msg/LaserScan . To use it, add the Generic LiDAR Ray Trace or Generic LiDAR 2D Depth sensor to the vehicle and changle the Publisher Class to ROS2LidarLaserScanPublisher.
• The Generic Lidar Sensor Publisher using sensor_msgs/msg/PointCloud. To use it, add the Generic LiDAR Ray Trace or Generic LiDAR 2D Depth sensor to the vehicle and changle the Publisher Class to ROS2LidarPointCloudPublisher.
• The Generic Lidar Sensor Publisher using sensor_msgs/msg/PointCloud2. To use it, add the Generic LiDAR Ray Trace or Generic LiDAR 2D Depth sensor to the vehicle and changle the Publisher Class to ROS2LidarPointCloud2Publisher.
• The Generic Nav Sensor Publisher using sensor_msgs/msg/NavSatFix . To use it, add the Generic Nav sensor to the vehicle and changle the Publisher Class to ROS2NavStatFixPublisher.
• The Generic Nav Sensor Publisher using nav_msgs/msg/Odometry. To use it, add the Generic Nav sensor to the vehicle and changle the Publisher Class to ROS2OdometryPublisher.
• The Generic Nav Sensor Publisher using nav_msgs/msg/Imu. To use it, add the Generic Nav sensor to the vehicle and changle the Publisher Class to ROS2ImuPublisher.
• The Generic Wheeled Vehicle Sensor Publisher using sensor_msgs/msg/JointState . To use it, add the Generic Wheeled Vehicle sensor to the vehicle and changle the Publisher Class to ROS2WheelsJointStatePublisher.
• The TF publisher sensor using tf2_msgs/TFMessage.msg. To use it, add the TF Publisher component to the vehicle.
• The Generic Wheeled Vehicle Control using ackermann_msgs/msg/AckermannDriveStamped. Using for control the wheeled vehicle via ackermann messages. To use it, add the Generic Vehicle Dirver to the vehicle and changle the Vehicle Control Class to ROS2AckermannControl.

What Next

• Support of the ros2 control .
• Support radar and ultrasonic sensors.
• Add the fully equipped turtlebot model.
• Add custom messages to control SODA.Sim via ROS2.
• Support the time sync messages
• Add CAN/LIN/IO/Serial virtual hardware interfaces
• Suggest to us what we're missed ?

Build ROS2 Workspace Manuly

Usually, you do not need to compile ROS2 from source code, but if you still need it see soda-sim-ros2-ws.

Build ros2-ue-wrapper

ros2-ue-wrapper is a simple interface (or wrapper) for the rclcpp so that UnrealEngine can use the capabilities of rclcpp and overcome the problems of:

• Disabled RTTI in UnrealEngine
• Globally overridden the new and delete operators in UnrealEngine.

For for Windows

$ call <REPO_ROOT>/ros2-windows/setup.bat
$ cd <REPO_ROOT>/ros2-ue-wrapper
$ colcon build --merge-install --install-base install_win64 --event-handlers console_direct+ --cmake-args -DBUILD_TESTING=OFF 

For Linux

$ export UE_ENGINE=<PATH_TO_UNREAL_ENGINE>/Engine
$ source <REPO_ROOT>/ros2-windows/setup.bash
$ cd <REPO_ROOT>/ros2-ue-wrapper
$ colcon build --merge-install --install-base install_linux --event-handlers console_direct+ --cmake-args -DBUILD_TESTING=OFF -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=<SODA_SIM_ROS2_WS>/unreal-linux-toolchain.cmake 

Copyright and License

Copyright © 2023 SODA.AUTO UK LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
This software contains code licensed as described in LICENSE.