This is Vizzy's "oh so amazing" repository!
This repository contains the necessary tools to interact with Vizzy - both on simulation and real robot usage.
The real robot uses two different middlewares for distinct body parts (YARP for the upperbody and ROS for the mobile base). In simulation there are two options in terms of middleware - one aligned with the real robot (using YARP and ROS) and one aiming simulation experiences (using exclusively ROS).
- vizzy_launch: Contains the launch files to interact with Vizzy (both on simulation and real robot usage). For most users it is the only package they need to directly use.
- vizzy_description: Contains all of Vizzy's description files (regarding mechanical, kinematic, visual, etc). You can use its launcher called
display.launchto check the model with the Rviz graphical tool. - vizzy_gazebo: Holds the launch files needed to simulate the robot on the GAZEBO simulator.
- vizzy_navigation: Contains the launch files for several packages of the ROS navigation stack.
- vizzy_control: Low-level controllers for Vizzy's simulation.
- vizzy_sensors: Package holding the Hokuyo filters for better scannings.
- vizzy_yarp_icub: YARP based controllers, drivers, libraries and modules. Cartesian controllers, gaze controller, ball tracker grasping demo, yoga demo.
Note that for simulation purposes one can ignore all YARP dependencies as explained on the repository description.
- Operating System (one of the two)
- Ubuntu 12.04 - forces the user to install ROS Hydro that currently is able to run everything
- Ubuntu 14.04 - forces the user to install ROS Indigo that currently is missing support for the planner we have configured for navigation
- Middleware
- Other Dependencies
- GAZEBO - the version that comes by default with the ROS installation
- gazebo-yarp-plugins - we try to keep everything working with the most recent version of gazebo-yarp-plugins
At any time you might need to install some more specific dependencies (like some missing ROS packages). Please open an issue in case you can't solve these or other dependencies.
You should have a catkin workspace on your file system to be able to compile the code. If you don't know how to do this please follow these instructions.
As soon as you have your catkin_workspace configured you are ready to open a terminal and run the following instructions:
cd /path/to/your/catkin/workspace/src
git clone https://github.com/vislab-tecnico-lisboa/vizzy
Be sure to add the source folder of your catkin workspace to the ROS_PACKAGE_PATH variable (skip this step if you already did it):
gedit ~/.bashrc
Add the following line to the end of the file:
export ROS_PACKAGE_PATH=/path/to/your/catkin/workspace/src:$ROS_PACKAGE_PATH
Save the file and run:
source ~/.bashrc
You still need to add something to the GAZEBO_MODEL_PATH:
gedit ~/.bashrc
(Yeah I know we could have done this on the previous step but I was afraid people would skip the last step without noticing this export...sorry)
export GAZEBO_MODEL_PATH=/path/to/your/catkin/workspace/src/vizzy/vizzy_gazebo:$GAZEBO_MODEL_PATH
Save the file and run:
source ~/.bashrc
You are now ready to compile the code!
The compilation is quite straightforward. Just open a terminal:
cd /path/to/your/catkin/workspace
catkin_make
Hmm... does this seems to easy? I hope it does because you should now be ready to interact with Vizzy!
For now let's focus on simulation. Open a terminal:
roslaunch vizzy_launch vizzy_simulation.launch use_yarp:=true navigation:=true
Don't forget you'll need to have yarpserver running when you have the use_yarp argument set as true.
Feel free to play with the arguments as you want or to change the low-level launchers with more functionality.
All kind of issues and contributions will be very welcome. Please get in touch on our issues page when help is needed!