experimental_robotics_course

Description

This repository contains the code for the experimental robotics course.

Hardware:

• The robot uses a differential drive mechanism.
• A realsense D435i 3D camera.
• [optional] A ouster 3D lidar.
• A joystick is used for teleoperation and stopping the autonomous movements when needed.
• An arduino board is used to subscribe command velocity.

Software:

• realsense camera driver
• rtabmap
• simple_drive
• etc.

Code:
For realsense D435i, please use the branch of realsense.
For ouster, please use the branch of ouster.

• src for ROS
• arduino_cmd_vel for Arduino

Videos:

• navigation_phone_1_ppt.mp4, navigation_phone_2_ppt.mp4 are recorded using a phone.
• navigation_screen.mp4 is the screen recording.

Running

git clone the repository. Change directory into the ROS workspace folder exp_ws. Or you can just use the ROS packages in src folder.

Install the needed packages. This command helps to install the dependency but the installation is not complete. rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y Copile the code, e.g., catkin build.

Upload arduino_cmd_vel to the Arduino board. Change the PWM pins to match the robot Aruduino.

For realsense:

roslaunch simple_drive course_drive.launch
roslaunch thk_nav course_slam_realsense.launch
roslaunch thk_nav course_navigation_realsense.launch

For ouster:

roslaunch simple_drive course_drive.launch
roslaunch thk_nav course_slam_ouster.launch
roslaunch thk_nav course_navigation_ouster.launch

The joystick controls the robot via teleop/cmd_vel. The move_base node of navigation stack controls the robot via move_base/cmd_vel. The two are subscribed by simple_drive/cmd_vel_mux that determines which one is sent to Arduino controller through cmd_vel.