IROS2019/Robot Control via ROS

This page explains how to control a virutal robot in SIGVerse based on ROS. The virtual robots are working under the Unity. SIGVerse uses ROS bridge and SIGVerse-ROS bridge to communicate your software in ROS side to SIGVerse system as shown in the following figure.

Environment Setup †

Setup Ubuntu Environment †

Instead of preparing an Ubuntu PC, you can use an Ubuntu virtual machine on Windows.
Please note that the functions which use GPU are difficult to execute in this case.

In the tutorial at IROS 2019, we provides a file of virtual machine image of Ubuntu environment using VMware.

*Note: The default RAM size of the virtual machine is 8GB. In case your PC has <8GB RAM, please change the size of RAM before you play the virtual machine.

1. Install VMware Workstation 15.5.0 Player using the installer (VMware-player-15.5.0-14665864.exe) in USB memory stick.
2. Launch VMware Workstation Player.
3. Click [Open a Virtual Machine]
4. Select "Ubuntu16.04.vmx" in the "Ubuntu16.04_InamuraLab (SIGVerse-tutorial)" folder in the USB memory stick and press [Open] button.
5. Select [Ubuntu16.04_InamuraLab (SIGVerse-tutorial)]
6. Click [Play virtual machine]

This virtual machine image has already finished the setup of SIGVerse-ros bridge, and several robot modules for Turtlebot, HSR, and so on.

Execute Example Scenes with ROS †

Unity Scene Execution †

Before executing the Unity example scene, you need to set the IP address for ROS on Unity.

1. Check the IP address of the Ubuntu side.
   Execute the following command in Ubuntu side to check the IP address.

    $ ifconfig

2. Open the SIGVerse project in Unity.
3. Click [SIGVerse]-[SIGVerse Settings] in the Unity menu to open the SIGVerse settings window.
4. Enter the IP address of Ubuntu side in [Config file Settings]-[Rosbridge IP].
   (You can also change [Rosbridge Port] and [SIGVerse Bridge Port] in the same way.)

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Example 1: Turtlebot2 follows a human †

Startup Procedure †

Start the Ubuntu side software first, then start the Windows(Unity) side.

Ubuntu side startup procedure †

Open a new terminal and execute the following command:

$ roslaunch sigverse_turtlebot2 follower.launch 

Windows side startup procedure †

1. Double-click [Assets/SIGVerse/SampleScenes/Turtlebot2/Turtlebot2Follower(.unity)] on the [Project] tab to open the target scene.
2. Click the play button at the top center of the Unity to play the scene.

Run †

When you press the arrow key after focusing on the Unity screen, the human avatar moves and TurtleBot2 follows the avatar.

* To check the TurtleBot2 camera image on the ROS side, execute the following command.

$ rosrun image_view image_view image:=/camera/rgb/image_raw

* You can also check with rviz.

$ roslaunch turtlebot_rviz_launchers view_robot.launch

If you want to finish, stop the Unity side and then the ROS side.

Reference Video

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Example 2: Operation of HSR with keyboard †

Startup Procedure †

Start the Ubuntu software first, and then start the Windows(Unity) side.

Ubuntu side startup procedure †

Open a new terminal and run the following command:

$ roslaunch sigverse_hsr_teleop_key teleop_key.launch

To start rviz, execute the following command.

$ roslaunch sigverse_hsr_teleop_key teleop_key_with_rviz.launch

Windows startup procedure †

1. Double-click [Assets/SIGVerse/SampleScenes/HSR/HsrTeleop(.unity)] on the [Project] tab to open the target scene.
2. Click the play button at the top center of the Unity to play the scene.

* A room will appear when you start. The room is randomly selected from 4 types.

Execution †

You can control HSR by keyboard operation on the teleop_key.launch terminal.

* Check the terminal for details of the operation.

* Head's Stereo Camera is disabled to reduce communication load.

If you want to finish, stop the Unity side first, and then stop the ROS side.

Ubuntu side (teleop_key_with_rviz.launch)

Windows side

Reference Video

Next: IROS2019/Application for robot competition (Handyman)

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Top: Tutorial at IROS2019