Mapping exploration

[BarceloChristian]

Description

Cartographer has been removed from packages.txt and installation of the latest version is being made in the docker. Fixed version of explore-lite (a.k.a m-explore) has been added to .repos. A new package called mapping_exploration has been added to generate launchfiles to initialize exploration nodes. A launchfile for explore-lite has been added.

Explore-lite configuration:

• Base frame and move base topic changed.
• Min frontier size increased a little to 0.8m
• Transform tolerance increased to 0.5m
• The potential scale (weighs frontiers based on distance) has not been changed.
• The gain scale (weighs frontiers based on size) has been reduced to 0. In this way, the robot will move more fluent toward it closest frontier.

Type of change

Please delete options that are not relevant.

• [ ] Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• [x] New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• [ ] Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to not work as expected)
• [x] This change requires a documentation update

How Has This Been Tested?

Run any kind of simulation using the proper configuration for cartographer

export RVIZ=true
export LOCALIZATION=cartographer
export LASER=rplidar

Then launch a simulation, e.g:

roslaunch ca_gazebo create_house.launch

And following that, as soon as the simulation starts:

roslaunch ca_mapping_exploration explore_lite.launch

The robot will start moving it until no new frontiers are found. The frontiers will be published on ROS and the visualization enabled on rViz.

Test Configuration:

• [ ] Real robot
• [x] Gazebo simulation
• [ ] Other (please specify)

Checklist:

• [x] My code follows the style guidelines of this project (Travis CI is passing)
• [x] I have performed a self-review of my own code
• [x] I have commented my code, particularly in hard-to-understand areas
• [ ] I have made corresponding changes to the documentation
• [x] My changes generate no new warnings
• [ ] I have added tests that prove my fix is effective or that my feature works
• [x] New and existing unit tests pass locally with my changes

[eborghi10]

The Linter is complaining! You can reproduce it locally with this command:

catkin lint -W2 --strict --explain /path/to/create_autonomy

[eborghi10]

Update the branch with latest kinetic-devel and you will need to use RVIZ=true instead of RVIZ_CONFIG.

[eborghi10]

@BarceloChristian can you add the option in RViz to visualize the frontiers?