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ROS 2 F1/10 Wheeltec Gazebo simulation workshop

The workshop is ROS 2 compatible Static Badge and Static Badge

Video

Part 1 of the video series about the workshop is available on YouTube:

Part 2 of the video:

Requirements (high-level)

  1. ROS 2 Humble: 🟠 see previous workshops or docs.ros.org/en/humble/Installation.html
  2. Gazebo Fortress: ✅ current workshop gazebosim.org/docs/fortress/install_ubuntu
  3. ROS gz bridge: ✅ current workshop, ROS integration. Install with a single command: sudo apt install ros-humble-ros-gz-bridge, gazebosim.org/docs/fortress/ros2_integration
  4. Build and run custom worlds and models ✅ current workshop (e.g. F1/10 / Wheeltec, Roboworks)
Image title
Official F1/10 vehicle vs Wheeltec Roboworks Ackermann Rosbot mini vehicle

Binary Installation on Ubuntu

Fortress binaries are provided for Ubuntu Bionic, Focal and Jammy. All of the Fortress binaries are hosted in the osrfoundation repository. To install all of them, the metapackage ignition-fortress can be installed. The following is based on gazebosim.org/docs/fortress/install_ubuntu.

First install some necessary tools:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install lsb-release wget gnupg

Then install Ignition Fortress:

sudo wget https://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo.gpg -O /usr/share/keyrings/pkgs-osrf-archive-keyring.gpg

echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/pkgs-osrf-archive-keyring.gpg] http://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo/ubuntu-stable $(lsb_release -cs) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gazebo-stable.list > /dev/null

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ignition-fortress

All libraries should be ready to use and the ign gazebo app ready to be executed.

Gazebo Fortress ROS 2 integration

Issue the following command:

sudo apt install ros-humble-ros-gz-bridge

sudo apt install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-ros-gz-bridge

Additional settings to WSL2

Warning - WSL2

There is an issue, which can be set even in ~/.bashrc:

export LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1

Set it in ~/.bashrc: 

echo "export LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1" >> ~/.bashrc

Don't forget to source bashrc. 
source ~/.bashrc

After new terminal or source:

echo $LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE

should print 1. Alternatively 

cat ~/.bashrc | grep LIBGL
should print the line.

Optional: Install rviz-2d-overlay plugin

For better visualization (rviz top left corner yellow text), install the rviz-2d-overlay plugin:

sudo apt install ros-humble-rviz-2d-overlay*

sudo apt install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-rviz-2d-overlay*

Check the installation

Success

Now the ign gazebo should work and the ros2 commands should be available.

Try at least one of the following commands:

ign gazebo

ign gazebo -v 4 -r ackermann_steering.sdf

ign gazebo shapes.sdf


ign param --versions

Packages and build

Detailed description of the packages and build process.

It is assumed that the workspace is ~/ros2_ws/.

The robotverseny_gazebo24 package contains the Gazebo 2.4 world and model files for the Wheeltec Roboworks robot, while the megoldas_sim24 package contains simple controllers to drive the robot in the simulation.

cd ~/ros2_ws/src

git clone https://github.com/robotverseny/robotverseny_gazebo24

git clone https://github.com/robotverseny/megoldas_sim24

Build

Build the following packages:

  • robotverseny_application
  • robotverseny_description
  • robotverseny_bringup
  • robotverseny_gazebo
  • megoldas_sim24
cd ~/ros2_ws

colcon build --symlink-install --packages-select robotverseny_application robotverseny_description robotverseny_bringup robotverseny_gazebo megoldas_sim24

Run the simulation

Don't forget to source before ROS commands. 
source ~/ros2_ws/install/setup.bash

ros2 launch robotverseny_bringup roboworks.launch.py

Run the controllers

After starting the simulation, we will need a controller to drive the robot. Two simple controllers are provided: simple_pursuit.py and follow_the_gap.py. An image of the simulation with follow_the_gap controller is shown below.

In a new terminal:

Don't forget to source before ROS commands. 
source ~/ros2_ws/install/setup.bash


ros2 launch megoldas_sim24 megoldas1.launch.py # start simple_pursuit

ros2 run megoldas_sim24 simple_pursuit.py

ros2 launch megoldas_sim24 megoldas2.launch.py # start follow_the_gap

ros2 run megoldas_sim24 follow_the_gap.py

The results can be seen in the animation below:

Useful commands

Publish command topic: 

ros2 topic pub --once /roboworks/cmd_vel geometry_msgs/msg/Twist "{linear: {x: 2.5, y: 0.0, z: 0.0}, angular: {x: 0.0, y: 0.0, z: -0.01}}"

Teleop twist keyboard: 

ros2 run teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard --ros-args -r /cmd_vel:=/roboworks/cmd_vel

Ignition info topic: 

ign topic -i --topic /model/roboworks/cmd_vel
Ignition echo topic:

ign topic -et /model/roboworks/cmd_vel

Topics:

ros2 topic list
Here are the topics. 
/clicked_point
/clock
/goal_pose
/initialpose
/joint_states
/parameter_events
/robot_description
/roboworks/cmd_vel
/roboworks/odometry
/roboworks/scan
/rosout
/tf
/tf_static

Transformations

The frame /odom_combined is practically the same as /map, there is a static 0,0,0 transform between them. The only dynamic transform is between /odom_combined and /base_link.

graph TD;

    map([ map]):::light
    odom_combined([ odom_combined]):::light
    base_link([ base_link]):::light
    chassis([ chassis]):::light
    camera_link([ camera_link]):::light
    imu_link([ imu_link]):::light
    laser([ laser]):::light

    odom_combined -.->|dynamic| base_link
    base_link -->|static| chassis
    base_link -->|static| camera_link
    base_link -->|static| imu_link
    base_link -->|static| laser
    map ==>|static - same| odom_combined

classDef light fill:#34aec5,stroke:#152742,stroke-width:2px,color:#152742  
classDef dark fill:#152742,stroke:#34aec5,stroke-width:2px,color:#34aec5
classDef white fill:#ffffff,stroke:#152742,stroke-width:2px,color:#152742
classDef red fill:#ef4638,stroke:#152742,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff

You can visualize the frames with:

ros2 run rqt_tf_tree rqt_tf_tree

Danger

There might be even more frames, but we are not using them.

Performance troubleshooting

If the simulation is slow, try the following:

Add --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release to the build command. And or adjust --parallel-workers N to the number of CPU cores. Example: 

colcon build --symlink-install --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release --parallel-workers 4 --packages-select robotverseny_application robotverseny_description robotverseny_bringup robotverseny_gazebo megoldas_sim24

As suggested by DDS settings for ROS 2 and Autoware: set the config file path and enlarge the Linux kernel maximum buffer size.

# Increase the maximum receive buffer size for network packets
sudo sysctl -w net.core.rmem_max=2147483647  # 2 GiB, default is 208 KiB

# IP fragmentation settings
sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.ipfrag_time=3  # in seconds, default is 30 s
sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.ipfrag_high_thresh=134217728  # 128 MiB

To make it permanent,

sudo nano /etc/sysctl.d/10-cyclone-max.conf

Paste the following into the file: 

# Increase the maximum receive buffer size for network packets
net.core.rmem_max=2147483647  # 2 GiB, default is 208 KiB

# IP fragmentation settings
net.ipv4.ipfrag_time=3  # in seconds, default is 30 s
net.ipv4.ipfrag_high_thresh=134217728  # 128 MiB, default is 256 KiB
Save and exit (CTRL+O, ENTER, CTRL+X).

Also have a look at Network settings for ROS 2 and Autoware and Performance Troubleshooting

Additional resources