ardrone_gazebo

Gazebo simulator test environment for the Parrot ArDrone. The world is a simulated version of the ISR 7th floor. The ArDrone model is based on the implementation of a gazebo simulator for the Ardrone 2.0 written by Hongrong Huang and Juergen Sturm of the Computer Vision Group at the Technical University of Munich (http://wiki.ros.org/tum_simulator).

Packages Description

• ardrone_helpers: Contains the joystick controller for the ardrone.
• ardrone_vislab: Contains the gazebo world files of the lab map, the ardrone model with the plugins and the simulation launch files.
• aruco_test: Contains the aruco board recognition package. It recognises the board in the simulator and publishes its position and pose on a ros topic (/ardrone/aruco/pose)
• opticalflow_controller: Contains a python reactive controller based on optical flow and inspired by flies.

Environment

• Operating System
  • Ubuntu 14.04 - or newer
• Middleware
  • ROS - depending on the installed OS (Indigo, Jade or Kinetic)
• Other Dependencies
  • GAZEBO - It needs GAZEBO 5 or newer

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.

Download and Setup

1 - Install ROS

Install ros full desktop following the installation instructions on the official ros website: www.ros.org (tested on indigo, jade and kinetic)

2 - Install the ardrone_autonomy package

If you are on Ubuntu simply write on your console:

$ sudo apt-get install ros-<your-ros-distribution>-ardrone-autonomy

3 - Install gazebo5 or newer

If you are using ros indigo install gazebo5, 6 or 7 from the osrfoundation repository. look at this page for more details: http://gazebosim.org/tutorials?tut=ros_wrapper_versions

4 - Install the aruco lib

In order to install the aruco lib follow the instructions of the readme in the official repository: https://sourceforge.net/projects/aruco/files/2.0.10/

Now add an environment variable with the path to your aruco library directory. To do so export the ARUCO_LIB_PATH inside your .bashrc:

$ echo "export ARUCO_LIB_PATH=<your_aruco_lib_directory>" >> ~/.bashrc
$ source ~/.bashrc

5 - Create a catkin workspace

If you don't have it already, create a catkin workspace folder (for more informations look at this link: http://wiki.ros.org/ROS/Tutorials/InstallingandConfiguringROSEnvironment):

$ mkdir catkin_ws

Create a folder named src inside it:

$ cd catkin_ws
$ mkdir src

Run catkin_init_workspace inside the src directory:

$ cd src
$ catkin_init_workspace

Now source your new setup.bash file inside your .bashrc:

$ echo "source <your_catkin_ws_directory>/devel/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
$ source ~/.bashrc

6 - Clone the git repository

Clone the git repository inside your catkin workspace src directory:

$ cd <your_catkin_ws_directory>/src
$ git clone https://github.com/vislab-tecnico-lisboa/ardrone_gazebo.git

Compile

1 - Compile the ros package with catkin

In order to compile the packages just run the following commands:

$ cd <your_catkin_ws_directory>
$ catkin_make

2 - Compile the ardrone_helpers with rosmake

In order to compile the joystick controller for the ardrone you need to compile it with rosmake:

$ cd <your_catkin_ws_directory>/ardrone_helpers
$ rosmake joy
$ rosmake ardrone_joystick

Run

1 - Runnig the simulation environment without AruCo

To launch the simulator without AruCo run ardrone_vislab launcher using roslaunch:

$ roslaunch ardrone_vislab_gazebo ardrone_vislab.launch

2 - Runnig the simulation environment with AruCo

To launch the simulator with AruCo run ardrone_vislab launcher using roslaunch:

$ roslaunch ardrone_vislab_gazebo ardrone_vislab.launch world:="isr_7th_floor_aruco.world"

3 - Runnig the joystick controller

To launch the joystick controller using roslaunch:

$ roslaunch ardrone_joystick teleop.launch

4 - Runnig the AruCo recognition package

To launch the AruCo recognition package using roslaunch:

$ roslaunch aruco_test aruco_test.launch

Issues

All kind of issues and contributions will be very welcome. Please get in touch on our issues page when help is needed!