General problems / missing details?

Hi,

I'm trying to run the Gazebo simulator but there are things that are not running as expected.

First issue. The ROS ros-noetic-rosbridge-server package seems to be missing although the README.md states that installing the ros-noetic-mir-robot package is enough to get up and running. Here's a copy of the error that I'm getting when launching roslaunch mir_driver mir.launch:

SUMMARY
========

PARAMETERS
 * /mir_bridge/hostname: 192.168.12.20
 * /mir_bridge/tf_prefix: 
 * /robot_description: <?xml version="1....
 * /rosdistro: noetic
 * /rosversion: 1.15.15
 * /tf_prefix: 
 * /tf_remove_state_publisher_frames/remove_frames: ['base_link', 'fr...

NODES
  /
    b_rep117_laser_filter (mir_driver/rep117_filter.py)
    f_rep117_laser_filter (mir_driver/rep117_filter.py)
    fake_mir_joint_publisher (mir_driver/fake_mir_joint_publisher.py)
    mir_bridge (mir_driver/mir_bridge.py)
    robot_state_publisher (robot_state_publisher/robot_state_publisher)
    tf_remove_state_publisher_frames (mir_driver/tf_remove_child_frames.py)

auto-starting new master
process[master]: started with pid [92]
ROS_MASTER_URI=http://localhost:11311

setting /run_id to cc06cf6a-82ae-11ed-9454-3c58c2b35ab0
process[rosout-1]: started with pid [102]
started core service [/rosout]
process[robot_state_publisher-2]: started with pid [109]
process[tf_remove_state_publisher_frames-3]: started with pid [110]
process[mir_bridge-4]: started with pid [111]
process[b_rep117_laser_filter-5]: started with pid [112]
process[f_rep117_laser_filter-6]: started with pid [117]
process[fake_mir_joint_publisher-7]: started with pid [119]
[INFO] [1671792279.095902]: [/mir_bridge] trying to connect to 192.168.12.20:9090...
[WARN] [1671792279.998512]: [/mir_bridge] still waiting for connection to 192.168.12.20:9090...
[WARN] [1671792280.998691]: [/mir_bridge] still waiting for connection to 192.168.12.20:9090...
[WARN] [1671792281.998505]: [/mir_bridge] still waiting for connection to 192.168.12.20:9090...
[WARN] [1671792282.998397]: [/mir_bridge] still waiting for connection to 192.168.12.20:9090...
[WARN] [1671792283.998458]: [/mir_bridge] still waiting for connection to 192.168.12.20:9090...
[WARN] [1671792284.998649]: [/mir_bridge] still waiting for connection to 192.168.12.20:9090...

It seems that first I need to run: roslaunch rosbridge_server rosbridge_websocket.launch after doing apt-get install ros-noetic-rosbridge-server.

Second issue. The above IP (192.168.12.20) is hardcoded in /opt/ros/noetic/share/mir_driver/launch/mir.launch. I don't understand why that particular IP has been chosen, but in the docs that is not mentioned. I'm assuming that after I've launched the rosbridge_server (which by default is listening on 0.0.0.0:9090) I need to update this configuration to be: <arg name="mir_hostname" default="127.0.0.1" /> but not 100% sure about this. However I can succesfully launch both processes so far.
Third issue. The console that is running the roslaunch mir_driver mir.launch is being flooded at a very high rate (actually my CPU load skyrockets after launching it) with these messages:

[INFO] [1671794925.991974]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: sent 4 transforms: odict_keys(['/surface', '/imu_frame', '/us_1_frame', '/us_2_frame'])
[INFO] [1671794925.994877]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: updated transform base_link->/surface.
[INFO] [1671794925.995985]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: updated transform imu_link->/imu_frame.
[INFO] [1671794925.997328]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: updated transform base_link->/us_1_frame.
[INFO] [1671794925.998473]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: updated transform base_link->/us_2_frame.
[INFO] [1671794925.999635]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: sent 4 transforms: odict_keys(['/surface', '/imu_frame', '/us_1_frame', '/us_2_frame'])
[INFO] [1671794926.002193]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: updated transform base_link->/surface.
[INFO] [1671794926.003573]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: updated transform imu_link->/imu_frame.
[INFO] [1671794926.005487]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: updated transform base_link->/us_1_frame.
[INFO] [1671794926.007061]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: updated transform base_link->/us_2_frame.
[INFO] [1671794926.009957]: [/mir_bridge] starting to stream messages on topic 'move_base/status'
[INFO] [1671794926.010236]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: sent 4 transforms: odict_keys(['/surface', '/imu_frame', '/us_1_frame', '/us_2_frame'])
[INFO] [1671794926.015737]: [/mir_bridge] starting to stream messages on topic 'move_base/result'
[INFO] [1671794926.017013]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: updated transform base_link->/surface.
[INFO] [1671794926.020797]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: updated transform imu_link->/imu_frame.
[INFO] [1671794926.021548]: [/mir_bridge] starting to stream messages on topic 'move_base/feedback'
[INFO] [1671794926.022940]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: updated transform base_link->/us_1_frame.
[INFO] [1671794926.024694]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: updated transform base_link->/us_2_frame.
[INFO] [1671794926.025740]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: sent 4 transforms: odict_keys(['/surface', '/imu_frame', '/us_1_frame', '/us_2_frame'])
[INFO] [1671794926.027885]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: updated transform base_link->/surface.
[INFO] [1671794926.029071]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: updated transform imu_link->/imu_frame.
[INFO] [1671794926.029998]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: updated transform base_link->/us_1_frame.
[INFO] [1671794926.031169]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: updated transform base_link->/us_2_frame.
[INFO] [1671794926.032269]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: sent 4 transforms: odict_keys(['/surface', '/imu_frame', '/us_1_frame', '/us_2_frame'])
[INFO] [1671794926.034741]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: updated transform base_link->/surface.
[INFO] [1671794926.035832]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: updated transform imu_link->/imu_frame.
[INFO] [1671794926.037133]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: updated transform base_link->/us_1_frame.
[INFO] [1671794926.038074]: [/mir_bridge] tf_static: updated transform base_link->/us_2_frame.
...

At this point even though my computer's load starts to increase for no reason I move on. I do not see any errors beside the INFO messages.

Now I proceed with the commands explained in "Gazebo demo (existing map)" of the README file.

The following steps take place in my environment (not in Docker, what I've shown so far is running on a noetic Docker image) in again a noetic environment. I was able to successfully build the project as explained. So in my environment after running source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash and source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash I launch: roslaunch mir_gazebo mir_maze_world.launch and rosservice call /gazebo/unpause_physics. Gazebo gets opened along with a UI where you are supposed to control the robot. Clicking on the UI to try to move the robot nothing happens, the robot is still in its original position in the Gazebo virtual environment.

The output for the roslaunch mir_gazebo mir_maze_world.launch is this:

SUMMARY
========

CLEAR PARAMETERS
 * /ekf_localization_node/

PARAMETERS
 * /ekf_localization_node/acceleration_gains: [0.8, 0.0, 0.0, 0...
 * /ekf_localization_node/acceleration_limits: [1.3, 0.0, 0.0, 0...
 * /ekf_localization_node/base_link_frame: base_footprint
 * /ekf_localization_node/control_config: [True, False, Fal...
 * /ekf_localization_node/control_timeout: 0.2
 * /ekf_localization_node/debug: False
 * /ekf_localization_node/debug_out_file: /path/to/debug/fi...
 * /ekf_localization_node/deceleration_gains: [1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0...
 * /ekf_localization_node/deceleration_limits: [1.3, 0.0, 0.0, 0...
 * /ekf_localization_node/frequency: 40
 * /ekf_localization_node/imu0: imu_data
 * /ekf_localization_node/imu0_config: [False, False, Fa...
 * /ekf_localization_node/imu0_differential: False
 * /ekf_localization_node/imu0_nodelay: False
 * /ekf_localization_node/imu0_queue_size: 10
 * /ekf_localization_node/imu0_relative: True
 * /ekf_localization_node/imu0_remove_gravitational_acceleration: False
 * /ekf_localization_node/initial_estimate_covariance: [100.0, 0, 0, 0, ...
 * /ekf_localization_node/map_frame: map
 * /ekf_localization_node/odom0: odom
 * /ekf_localization_node/odom0_config: [False, False, Fa...
 * /ekf_localization_node/odom0_differential: False
 * /ekf_localization_node/odom0_nodelay: False
 * /ekf_localization_node/odom0_queue_size: 10
 * /ekf_localization_node/odom0_relative: False
 * /ekf_localization_node/odom_frame: odom
 * /ekf_localization_node/print_diagnostics: True
 * /ekf_localization_node/process_noise_covariance: [0.05, 0, 0, 0, 0...
 * /ekf_localization_node/publish_acceleration: False
 * /ekf_localization_node/publish_tf: True
 * /ekf_localization_node/sensor_timeout: 0.1
 * /ekf_localization_node/stamped_control: False
 * /ekf_localization_node/transform_time_offset: 0.0
 * /ekf_localization_node/transform_timeout: 0.0
 * /ekf_localization_node/two_d_mode: True
 * /ekf_localization_node/use_control: False
 * /ekf_localization_node/world_frame: odom
 * /gazebo/enable_ros_network: True
 * /joint_state_controller/publish_rate: 50
 * /joint_state_controller/type: joint_state_contr...
 * /joint_state_publisher/rate: 200.0
 * /joint_state_publisher/source_list: ['mir/joint_states']
 * /mobile_base_controller/angular/z/has_acceleration_limits: True
 * /mobile_base_controller/angular/z/has_velocity_limits: True
 * /mobile_base_controller/angular/z/max_acceleration: 2.5
 * /mobile_base_controller/angular/z/max_velocity: 1.5
 * /mobile_base_controller/base_frame_id: base_footprint
 * /mobile_base_controller/cmd_vel_timeout: 0.5
 * /mobile_base_controller/enable_odom_tf: False
 * /mobile_base_controller/left_wheel: left_wheel_joint
 * /mobile_base_controller/linear/x/has_acceleration_limits: True
 * /mobile_base_controller/linear/x/has_velocity_limits: True
 * /mobile_base_controller/linear/x/max_acceleration: 2.0
 * /mobile_base_controller/linear/x/max_velocity: 1.0
 * /mobile_base_controller/odom_frame_id: odom
 * /mobile_base_controller/pose_covariance_diagonal: [1e-05, 1e-05, 10...
 * /mobile_base_controller/publish_rate: 41.2
 * /mobile_base_controller/right_wheel: right_wheel_joint
 * /mobile_base_controller/twist_covariance_diagonal: [0.1, 0.1, 100000...
 * /mobile_base_controller/type: diff_drive_contro...
 * /mobile_base_controller/wheel_radius_multiplier: 1.0
 * /mobile_base_controller/wheel_separation_multiplier: 1.0
 * /robot_description: <?xml version="1....
 * /rosdistro: noetic
 * /rosversion: 1.15.15
 * /rqt_robot_steering/default_topic: cmd_vel
 * /rqt_robot_steering/default_vw_max: 1.5
 * /rqt_robot_steering/default_vw_min: -1.5
 * /rqt_robot_steering/default_vx_max: 1.0
 * /rqt_robot_steering/default_vx_min: -1.0
 * /use_sim_time: True

NODES
  /
    b_rep117_laser_filter (mir_driver/rep117_filter.py)
    b_scan_relay (topic_tools/relay)
    controller_spawner (controller_manager/spawner)
    ekf_localization_node (robot_localization/ekf_localization_node)
    f_rep117_laser_filter (mir_driver/rep117_filter.py)
    f_scan_relay (topic_tools/relay)
    gazebo (gazebo_ros/gzserver)
    gazebo_gui (gazebo_ros/gzclient)
    joint_state_publisher (joint_state_publisher/joint_state_publisher)
    robot_state_publisher (robot_state_publisher/robot_state_publisher)
    rqt_robot_steering (rqt_robot_steering/rqt_robot_steering)
    spawn_maze (gazebo_ros/spawn_model)
    spawn_urdf (gazebo_ros/spawn_model)

ROS_MASTER_URI=http://localhost:11311

process[gazebo-1]: started with pid [65977]
process[gazebo_gui-2]: started with pid [65982]
process[spawn_urdf-3]: started with pid [65987]
process[controller_spawner-4]: started with pid [65988]
process[ekf_localization_node-5]: started with pid [65997]
process[joint_state_publisher-6]: started with pid [66007]
process[robot_state_publisher-7]: started with pid [66017]
process[rqt_robot_steering-8]: started with pid [66036]
process[b_scan_relay-9]: started with pid [66039]
process[f_scan_relay-10]: started with pid [66054]
process[b_rep117_laser_filter-11]: started with pid [66063]
process[f_rep117_laser_filter-12]: started with pid [66078]
process[spawn_maze-13]: started with pid [66104]
[ WARN] [1671795485.266056747]: Shutdown request received.
[ WARN] [1671795485.272054087]: Reason given for shutdown: [[/robot_state_publisher] Reason: new node registered with same name]
[robot_state_publisher-7] process has finished cleanly
log file: /home/lucas/.ros/log/f1597fdc-82b4-11ed-9fcc-3c58c2b35ab0/robot_state_publisher-7*.log
[INFO] [1671795486.220880, 0.000000]: Waiting for /clock to be available...
[INFO] [1671795486.535901, 0.000000]: Loading model XML from file /home/lucas/catkin_ws/src/mir_robot/mir_gazebo/sdf/maze/model.sdf
[INFO] [1671795486.541554, 0.000000]: Waiting for service /gazebo/spawn_sdf_model
[ INFO] [1671795487.270231022]: Finished loading Gazebo ROS API Plugin.
[ INFO] [1671795487.272929625]: waitForService: Service [/gazebo/set_physics_properties] has not been advertised, waiting...
[ INFO] [1671795487.386515341]: Finished loading Gazebo ROS API Plugin.
[ INFO] [1671795487.389927086]: waitForService: Service [/gazebo_gui/set_physics_properties] has not been advertised, waiting...
[ INFO] [1671795488.937364222]: waitForService: Service [/gazebo/set_physics_properties] is now available.
[INFO] [1671795488.962630, 0.000000]: Calling service /gazebo/spawn_sdf_model
[INFO] [1671795489.239285, 0.000000]: Spawn status: SpawnModel: Successfully spawned entity
[spawn_maze-13] process has finished cleanly
log file: /home/lucas/.ros/log/f1597fdc-82b4-11ed-9fcc-3c58c2b35ab0/spawn_maze-13*.log
[ INFO] [1671795490.348355294]: Physics dynamic reconfigure ready.
[spawn_urdf-3] process has finished cleanly
log file: /home/lucas/.ros/log/f1597fdc-82b4-11ed-9fcc-3c58c2b35ab0/spawn_urdf-3*.log

Note the:

[ WARN] [1671795485.266056747]: Shutdown request received.
[ WARN] [1671795485.272054087]: Reason given for shutdown: [[/robot_state_publisher] Reason: new node registered with same name]

messages. I don't know if that is correct/incorrect or expected behaviour. Besides that the robot is not moving in the console where I'm running the rosbridge_server process I get these errors:

2022-12-23 11:38:08+0000 [-] [ERROR] [1671795488.502394]: [Client 1] publish: Message type geometry_msgs/Twist does not have a field header
2022-12-23 11:40:27+0000 [-] [ERROR] [1671795627.972498]: [Client 1] publish: Message type geometry_msgs/Twist does not have a field header
2022-12-23 11:40:27+0000 [-] [ERROR] [1671795627.990643]: [Client 1] publish: Message type geometry_msgs/Twist does not have a field header
2022-12-23 11:40:28+0000 [-] [ERROR] [1671795628.091006]: [Client 1] publish: Message type geometry_msgs/Twist does not have a field header
2022-12-23 11:40:28+0000 [-] [ERROR] [1671795628.191302]: [Client 1] publish: Message type geometry_msgs/Twist does not have a field header
2022-12-23 11:40:28+0000 [-] [ERROR] [1671795628.291005]: [Client 1] publish: Message type geometry_msgs/Twist does not have a field header

At this stage it's clear that either I'm doing something wrong, or some steps from the documentation are missing, or both or something else is going on... Unfortunately I'm not that experienced with ROS so is not easy to spot what the issue could be. As previously stated I'm running roslaunch rosbridge_server rosbridge_websocket.launch and roslaunch mir_driver mir.launch in a docker noetic container (the docker container is launched with the --network host option so I can communicate with those services from my regular environment) and the Gazebo environment is run outside docker. Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks, Lucas.

DFKI-NI / mir_robot

General problems / missing details? #119