carla_autoware_bridge package

[Robotics010]

Hi Autoware community!

Here is carla_autoware_bridge, an addition package to carla_ros_bridge to connect CARLA simulator to Autoware Universe software. This is still Work in Progress package. So reports and improvement suggestions are very welcome.

Go to Getting started tutorial to setup and launch autoware simulation with CARLA simulator.

However there is no official support of the Autoware Universe self-driving open source project from CARLA developers, there is a maintained carla_ros_bridge, which supports communication between CARLA simulator and ROS2 applications. This ROS2 package reuses carla_ros_bridge and adds missing things to support communicating with the Autoware Universe.

[maxime-clem]

Thank you for your contribution ! The instructions on how to run look very detailed. I am not a CARLA user but I will try to test your bridge when I get the time.
From what I understand, one issue with the CARLA bridge comes from its performance being very bad when using many lidars. Does your bridge help with this issue ? Or do you think some improvements are possible to make performance better ?

[maxime-clem]

I could setup almost everything without issue following the instructions.
However, I encountered blocking issues that are probably related to my environment using humble instead of galactic.
Do you know if it is possible to add humble compatibility ? This would enable using the latest version of autoware since no new development is being done for galactic.

About performance, there is this open issue: carla-simulator/ros-bridge#670

[Robotics010]

Regarding CARLA bridge performance. CARLA simulator has a synchronous mode, with which you are not obligated to run simulator real time (depending on the hardware you go slower or faster than real time), so CARLA bridge performance even with many lidars shouldn't be a problem.
I'll check if a synchronization of data between CARLA simulator and carla-ros-bridge is working properly when you launch using the getting started tutorial from my package.

[Robotics010]

And about humble/galactic version. Unfortunately, CARLA developers supports up to foxy version and so CARLA simulator comes with precompiled carla 2.7, 3.6, 3.7, and 3.8 python packages. Foxy or Galactic precompiled uses python 3.8. So we can use CARLA simulator with Foxy or Galactic based systems, such as autoware galactic branch version. I've asked about humble support as a part of other discussion, but I haven't got any response yet.

On the other side humble precompiled uses python 3.10 and there is no carla 3.10 precompiled python package. That is why CARLA users are using galactic autoware branch instead of humble. However there is a way to compile CARLA and/or carla python package by yourself but I didn't try it yet and it looks like an effort (especially for someone not knowing CARLA ecosystem).

I may be wrong somewhere in my explanation (or I may be not describing a reason precisely), but I've tried and was unsuccessfull with autoware humble + the latest CARLA simulator.

[maxime-clem]

Thank you for the explanation and for your hard work. I understand the current limitations.

[Robotics010]

FYI here is another worry about time-consuming lidar operation from a carla-ros-bridge side from the carla-ros-bridge maintainer. I hope this still can be mitigated by the synchronous mode.

[mitsudome-r]

@Robotics010 Great work!
If you don't mind, please consider writing instructions to the documentation under digital-twin simulation:

• https://github.com/autowarefoundation/autoware-documentation/tree/main/docs/tutorials/ad-hoc-simulation/digital-twin-simulation
  There are currently tutorials for AWSIM and MORAI SIM, but not for CARLA

[Robotics010]

Hey @mitsudome-r, thank you! This was the initial idea to add the CARLA option to Autoware tutorials. I would like to make it as soon as possible, but after few outstanding problems will be fixed.

Meanwhile could you share thoughts if any about the following:

1. Currently only galactic autoware branch is supported, because carla-ros-bridge only supports up to foxy (and galactic is just working as well). I haven't got yet a response on when carla is going to support Autoware or at least humble, but we can make a community version of carla supporting humble and hence make CARLA supports up to Autoware main branch.
2. It looks like carla maintainers are going to rewrite carla-ros-bridge in C++. This is a good news, because it resolves the poor performance issue, but the release date is unknown and it was not even officially published.
3. Sensors placement, vehicle/calibration configs are not added/configured yet and there wasn't yet done any control tuning for the selected vehicle from the CARLA simulator. I'm going to perform it as well, but it will take some time.
4. Obviously it is useful to use CARLA synchronous mode, but I still need to investigate how it can be used with autoware.

[evshary]

Hi @Robotics010 I've created a PR to list the projects bridge Autoware and Carla on Autoware documentation.
autowarefoundation/autoware-documentation#517
Would you mind putting your nice implementation on the list?
I know that there are still some items working in progress, but it would give more visibility to your project for the community and they don't need to rebuild the wheels.

[Robotics010]

@evshary hey! Yes, sure.
Thanks for adding the bridge there.