Viewpoint Planning Package

Overview

The viewpoint_planning package provides a ROS-based framework to spawn a sensor in a Gazebo simulation environment and capture depth and color images from various poses. This package includes the URDF model of the sensor, necessary plugins for depth and color image capturing, and a ROS service to manage the sensor's pose and data capture.

This package is meant a wrapper for simulating the results of algorithms designed for solving the Coverage Viewpoint Problem.

Features

• URDF Model: Detailed URDF model for the structured light sensor.
• Gazebo Integration: Simulate the sensor in a Gazebo environment with depth and color image capturing capabilities.
• ROS Services: Spawn the sensor at specified poses and capture sensor data.
• TF Management: Manage TF frames for accurate pose representation and data alignment.

Installation

1. Prerequisites
   • ROS (Robot Operating System) Noetic
   • Gazebo
   • Necessary ROS dependencies
2. Clone the Repository

   cd ~/catkin_ws/src
   git clone https://github.com/FarStryke21/viewpoint_planning.git

3. Build the package

   cd ~/catkin_ws
   catkin build
   source devel/setup.bash
   

Usage

1. Launch Simulator

   roslaunch viewpoint_planning viewpoint_test.launch

2. Spawn the target model

   Define the Gazebo model for your target object in the gazebo_models directory. Call the model using the appropriate rosservice.

   rosservice call /load_mesh "mesh_file: 'test_bunny'"

3. Set initial pose

   The pose of the sensor can be changed by sending request calls to /gazebo/set_model_state. Your viewpoint manager should send this service requests. You can also send service commands from a command line terminal or the Gazebo window. An example of pose sent to the sensor looking directly down is given here

   rosservice call /gazebo/set_model_state "model_state: 
   {
       model_name: 'structured_light_sensor_robot', 
       pose: 
       {
       position: 
       {
           x: 0, 
           y: 0, 
           z: 1.0
       }, 
       orientation: 
       {
           x: 0.0, 
           y: 1.0, 
           z: 0.0, 
           w: 0.0
       }
       }, 
       twist: 
       {
       linear: 
       {
           x: 0.0, 
           y: 0.0, 
           z: 0.0
       }, 
       angular: 
       {
           x: 0.0, 
           y: 0.0, 
           z: 0.0
       }
       }, 
       reference_frame: 'world'
   }"

4. Capture the surface

   Surface capture requesus can be mafe through the following rosservice:

   rosservice call /capture_surface 

   This publishes two pointclouds, \current_measurement which provides the last captured surface, and \accumulated_surface which provides the combined surface clouds. The messages are only published during service calls.

Files and Directories

• urdf/: Contains the URDF model files.
• launch/: Contains launch files for starting the Gazebo simulation and RViz.
• meshes/: Contains the mesh files for the sensor model.
• gazebo_models/: Contains the gazebo model descriptions for the target objects.
• config/: Contains configuration files for RViz and Gazebo.
• src/: Contains the source code for the ROS package.
• srv/: Contains the service descriptions for the ROS package.
• CMakeLists.txt: CMake build script.
• package.xml: Package manifest.

Contact

For issues, questions, or contributions, please contact:

• Author: Aman Chulawala
• GitHub: FarStryke21

Contributions and feedback are always welcome!