search

ctu-mrs / mrs_uav_system

The entry point to the MRS UAV system.
https://ctu-mrs.github.io/
BSD 3-Clause "New" or "Revised" License
436 stars 86 forks source link

On modeling a tether #14

Closed MicheleBolognini closed 4 years ago

MicheleBolognini commented 4 years ago

Dear MRS team,

supposing I need to simulate the presence of a tether connecting a pair of drones, and given that I only need to simulate its pulling effect on the drones, not necessarily its contact with the environment, what would be the best way to implement this?

I have considered modeling it as a series of segments in gazebo, connected through spherical joints, but the behavior is not satisfying and it severely burdens the computation. I would like to specify the model (series of masses connected through spring and dampers) as a set of differential equations and have them solved during the simulation. My approach would be to write a ROS node that performs this simulation and communicates the result (cable configuration + forces exerted on the drones) to gazebo, so that the pulling forces on the drones are also simulated. Is there a better way to do this in your framework?

Thanks Michele

spurnvoj commented 4 years ago

Hi Michele, I think the best way will be to create a world plugin, that you will attach to your gazebo world. You can check our package mrs_gazebo_extras_resources with world plugin link_attacher that is allowing to rigidly attach and detach two objects together and also to apply force on a specific object. So you can use it as the template and adjust it for your purpose.

Vojta