This project contains a gazebo model and ros plugin for simulating the Bitcraze MultiRanger deck for Crazyflie 2.0. MultiRanger is currently unreleased and this project is a work in progress.

How it Works

This project models the Multiranger deck by representing the VL53L1X sensor as a RaySensor in the SDF format used by Gazebo. The sensor region of interest is modeled as a volume of rays using the <horizontal> and <vertical> <scan> properties of the RaySensor. Then, a model plug-in publishes the minimum distance measured in each volume of rays to a topic. This is the same approach as is used in Hector Gazebo Plugins to model sonar sensors commonly used as altimeters in larger quadrotors.

Dependencies

Currently this project requires Gazebo 9

Installation

Clone this repository to a catkin workspace and build from source using catkin_make multiranger_deck_gazebo_ros This will put the gazebo plugin library and model in the devel/share folder of the workspace.

How to use

Relative to your catkin workspace location,

• add devel/lib to CATKIN_PLUGIN_PATH
• add devel/share/multiranger_deck_gazebo_ros/model to CATKIN_MODEL_PATH
• start a roscore and Gazebo with roscore & rosrun gazebo_ros gazebo
• insert the multiranger model into the Gazebo world.

Acknowledgements

This project benefited from Hector Gazebo Plugins Hector Gazebo Plugins and the Gazebo plugin-tutorial. In particular, the sonar gazebo plugin in Hector Gazebo Plugins was used as a reference.

TODO

• Add an inertia / mass model
• Parameterize the model to implement the various operating modes of the VL53L1X (angle spread, range, update rate etc)
• Add parameter to disable visual rendering of the sensor rays
• Remake the collision and visual elements of the model to match the dimensions and appearance of the sensor
• Add support for prior versions of the Gazebo API