IRT C++/ROS 2 nanoAUV Offline Trajectory Provider

Author:

• Maximilian Nitsch maximilian.nitsch@rwth-aachen.de (Institute of Automatic Control - RWTH Aachen University)

Maintainer:

• Maximilian Nitsch maximilian.nitsch@rwth-aachen.de (Institute of Automatic Control - RWTH Aachen University)

Description

This project implements a provider for three different trajectories of the autonomous underwater vehicle "nanoAUV".

The simulator implements the following features:

• "Lawnmower" trajectory
• "YoYo" trajectory
• "Validation" trajectory (mix of different trajectories)

Our in-house hydrodynamics and control simulator have generated all trajectories. The trajectories are provided as CSV files. The Offline Trajectory Provides loads a CSV file and publishes the data as ROS 2 odometry and AccelStamped message.

Table of Contents

• Dependencies
• Installation
• Usage
• ROS 2 Nodes
  • Publishers
• Coding Guidelines
• References
• Contributing
• License

Dependencies

This project depends on the following literature and libraries:

• ROS 2 Humble: ROS 2 is a set of software libraries and tools for building robot applications: ROS 2 Installation page).

Installation

To install the offline_trajectory_provider_package, you need to follow these steps:

1. Install ROS 2 Humble: Make sure you have ROS 2 (Humble) installed. You can follow the official installation instructions provided by ROS 2. Visit ROS 2 Humble Installation page for detailed installation instructions tailored to your platform.

2. Clone the Package: Clone the package repository to your ROS 2 workspace. If you don't have a ROS 2 workspace yet, you can create one using the following commands:

   mkdir -p /path/to/ros2_workspace/src
   cd /path/to/ros2_workspace/src

   Now, clone the package repository:

   git clone <repository_url>

   Replace <repository_url> with the URL of your package repository.

3. Build the Package: Once the package is cloned, you must build it using colcon, the default build system for ROS 2. Navigate to your ROS 2 workspace and run the following command:

   cd /path/to/ros2_workspace
   colcon build

   This command will build all the packages in your workspace, including the newly added package.

4. Source the Workspace: After building the package, you need to source your ROS 2 workspace to make the package available in your ROS 2 environment. Run the following command:

   source /path/to/ros2_workspace/install/setup.bash

   Replace /path/to/ros2_workspace with the actual path to your ROS 2 workspace.

That's it! Your offline_trajectory_provider_package should now be installed along with its dependencies and ready to use in your ROS 2 environment.

Usage

1. Configure your YAML file for your IMU or use the default file.

2. Start the Offline Trajectory Provider with the launch file:

   ros2 launch offline_trajectory_provider_package offline_trajectory_provider_launch.launch.py

The Offline Trajectory Provider now starts reading in the selected CSV file and publishes ground truth odometry and acceleration messages.

ROS 2 Nodes

The IMU simulator node implements five publishers and subscribes to one topic. ROS 2 services or actions are not provided.

Publishers

This node publishes the following topics:

Topic Name	Message Type	Description
/auv/odometry	nav_msgs/Odometry.msg	Publishes odometry data.
/auv/accel	geometry_msgs/AccelStamped.msg	Publishes acceleration data.

Coding Guidelines

This project follows these coding guidelines:

• https://google.github.io/styleguide/cppguide.html
• http://docs.ros.org/en/humble/The-ROS2-Project/Contributing/Code-Style-Language-Versions.html

References

The offline trajectory provider simulator implementation closely follows the work:

• M. Nitsch, "Navigation of a miniaturized autonomous underwater vehicle exploring waters under ice," Dissertation, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Aachen, RWTH Aachen University, 2024. DOI: 10.18154/RWTH-2024-05964.

Contributing

If you want to contribute to the project, see the CONTRIBUTING file for details.

License

This project is licensed under the BSD-3-Clause License. See the LICENSE file for details.