waypointgen

A waypoint generator (using InteractiveMarkers in Rviz) and a waypoint server for waypoint playback. The waypoints are saved as a YAML file.

Usage

Ensure that the waypointgen action msg is cloned into the workspace before cloning the main waypointgen package:

$ git clone https://github.com/1487quantum/wpg_msg.git

Git clone the ROS Package into the relevant workspace & compile it:

$ git clone https://github.com/1487quantum/waypointgen.git
$ catkin_make

Setpoint Markers

Launch the Waypoint Generator via roslaunch, which would launch the program and rviz:

$ roslaunch waypointgen setpoint_marker.launch  

Next, add the InteractiveMarker in Rviz. (Topic name: /setpoint_marker/update)

Alternatively, load wp_markers.rviz into Rviz!

There are 3 options to choose from the context menu (when the marker is right-clicked), which are

• Get Location: Get current location of marker selected.
• Waypoint
  • Add: Add new waypoint.
  • Remove: Remove selected waypoint.
• Generate Waypoint List: Generate waypoint list to be used in waypoint playback.

Waypoint Server

The waypoint server would load the YAML which is specified in the roslaunch file, which would then publish the various navigation goals.

Note: The setpoint_server node subscribes to /move_base/TebLocalPlanner/GlobalPath, so change it accordingly if TebLocalPlanner Plugin is not used!

Playback

Launch the playback server via roslaunch:

$ roslaunch waypointgen setpoint_server.launch  

The path of the waypoint list is specified via the pathway param in the launch file.

<param name="pathway" type="str" value="a.yaml"/>

Starting the server playback

By default, the server would not start until the s_state = "PLAY".

[ INFO] [1581956954.202074110]: Waiting for PLAY cmd from wpg_server_status...

Note: Ensure that the status are in UPPERCASE! E.g. "STOP", not "Stop".

To start the server, publish the wpg_server_status topic with wpg_stat message type. (Check it out in the /msg dir!)

$ rostopic pub /wpg_server_status wayintgen/wpg_stat "status: 'PLAY'
delay: <Delay in seconds>" 

For example, the following line below would send out the waypoint goals 10s after initialisation.

$ rostopic pub /wpg_server_status wayintgen/wpg_stat "status: 'PLAY'
delay: 100"