strands_morse

A MORSE-based simulation for the STRANDS project

Prerequisites

For running the simulation you would need:

• MORSE
• Blender
• ROS

We recommend to install the morse-blender-bundle from our debian server:

• Set-up instructions: Using the STRANDS repository
• Install the bundle: sudo apt-get install morse-blender-2.65-py-3.3
• Source the environment: source /opt/morse-blender-2.65-py-3.3/.bashrc You might want to add this to your ~/.bashrc
• Check if morse has installed correctly: morse check

Please refer to the respective installation guides to install them on your system.

The current software has been tested under the following configuration:

• MORSE (strands-project/morse)
• Blender 2.63a
• ROS Groovy
• Python 3.2.3 (3.3.0)
• Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Please note: Using a depth camera requires Python 3.3.0 and a corresponding Blender version (>2.65).

Getting Started

Start some terminals and run the commands below:

1. Fire up roscore:

   $ roscore

2. Run the MORSE simulation:

   $ roslaunch strands_morse bham_cs_morse.launch

3. (optional) Launch the 2D navigation:

   $ roslaunch strands_morse bham_cs_nav2d.launch

4. (optional) To visualize the environment model in RVIZ run

   $ rosrun rviz rviz
   
   $ roslaunch strands_morse bham_cs_rviz.launch

   and add a new display of type RobotModel in RVIZ. Set the robot_description to /env/env_description and TF prefix to env. (requires strands_utils)

The commands above use the lower ground floor of the Computer Science building by default. For simulating a different level of the building please run:

    $ roslaunch strands_morse bham_cs_morse.launch env:=cs_1

Other available environments are: cs_lg, cs_ug, cs_1, cs_2, cs (for the whole building)

Similarly, you have to run the navigation and visualization with an extra argument as follows:

    $ roslaunch strands_morse bham_cs_nav2d.launch env:=cs_1               

    $ roslaunch strands_morse bham_cs_rviz.launch env:=cs_1

To start run the MORSE simulation of the TUM kitchen with a ScitosA5:

   $ roslaunch strands_morse tum_kitchen_morse.launch

Alternatively:

   $ roslaunch strands_morse tum_kitchen_morse.launch env:=tum_kitchen_WITHOUT_CAMERAS

The Scitos robot model is equipped with a video, depth and semantic camera by default.

If you wish to start the robot without any camera provide Scitosa5.WITHOUT_CAMERAS in the robot's constructor (see example below). Starting the robot without any camera is useful to run MORSE in fast_mode.

If you only want to disable the depth camera, provide Scitosa5.WITHOUT_DEPTHCAM in the constructor. This might be useful if you run MORSE on MacOSX, because users have reported problems when using a depth camera.

Example usage in the MORSE builder script:

• with cameras:

  robot = Scitosa5()
  # Alterntively
  # robot = Scitosa5(Scitosa5.WITH_CAMERAS)

• without cameras

  robot = Scitosa5(Scitosa5.WITHOUT_CAMERAS)

• without depth camera

  robot = Scitosa5(Scitosa5.WITHOUT_DEPTHCAMS)

• with OpenNI stack generating point clouds and images, be sure to launch roslaunch strands_morse generate_camera_topics.launch and

  robot = Scitosa5(Scitosa5.WITH_OPENNI)