OctomapPlanner

This article explains how to set up and use ArduPlanner to work with Gazebo SITL

Overview

OctomapPlanner is a library for autonomous mapping and planning specifically designed for ArduPilot Copter. It uses Octomap for 3D occupancy mapping and OMPL and FCL for goal-directed planning with collision avoidance.

This library is still under development and has only been tested to work with Gazebo SITL for limited test cases. Further development and tests on hardware are still to be done.

Setup Instructions

It is recommended to use Ubuntu 16.04 since all the tests have been conducted on it.

Make sure to install gazebo-8 instead of gazebo-7 since visualization messages are not supported before gazebo-8

Users should first setup OSRF keys and install Gazebo 8 by executing

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo/ubuntu-stable `lsb_release -cs` main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gazebo-stable.list'
wget http://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo.key -O - | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt update
sudo apt install libgazebo8-dev

We will also use ros sources for installing other dependencies. To do that use the following commands

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list'
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://ha.pool.sks-keyservers.net:80 --recv-key 421C365BD9FF1F717815A3895523BAEEB01FA116
sudo apt update

ROS users can also install Gazebo 8 with ROS support after adding OSRF keys and using ros-kinetic-gazebo8-* packages

Follow the steps here to install ardupilot_gazebo https://github.com/swiftgust/ardupilot_gazebo

Dependencies Installation

octomap

sudo apt install liboctomap-dev

mavlink

sudo apt install ros-kinetic-mavlink

OMPL

sudo apt install ros-kinetic-ompl

fcl

git clone https://github.com/danfis/libccd
cd libccd
mkdir build && cd build
cmake -G "Unix Makefiles" -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON ..
make && sudo make install

git clone https://github.com/flexible-collision-library/fcl
cd fcl
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
sudo make install

Finally, build OctomapPlanner and copy the iris model and grass model for gazebo to find

git clone https://github.com/ardupilot/OctomapPlanner
cd OctomapPlanner
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
cp -r ../models/* ~/.gazebo/models/

Running the code

Launch Gazebo with a demo world by executing

gazebo --verbose worlds/iris_gas_station_demo.world

On a seperate terminal start ArduCopter SITL

sim_vehicle.py -v ArduCopter -f gazebo-iris

Switch the copter to guided mode and takeoff using the following commands

mode guided
arm throttle
takeoff 1 (or any other hight in metres)

Before launching the code you may want to edit a few parameters like start and goal location This can be done by editing the planner_params.yaml file inside the config folder

Finally, launch the planner code by executing this from the OctomapPlanner root folder

./build/main_node

Related Blogs

GSoC 2018: Realtime Mapping and Planning for Collision Avoidance

GSoC 2018: Realtime Mapping and Planning for Collision Avoidance: Part 2