Gazebo & ROS Simulator

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Short Introduction

There are two workspaces:

• bfmc_workspace, which contains the necessary files for running the simulator
• startup_workspace, where we provided some useful libraries for running your Python code in the Gazebo simulator

How to Start

• Install Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS (Bionic Beaver). For best performances, avoid using a virtual machine.
• Install ROS Melodic. We suggest using the Desktop Full Install. Make sure you follow all the instructions and pay attention to the Initialize rosdep subchapter.
• Install Gazebo9.
• Quick YouTube tutorial for workspace setup.

Workspace Setup

Clone the repository inside the Documents folder (or perform a commit on the repository)

1. bfmc_workspace

• Open a terminal in ~/Documents/BFMC_Simulator/bfmc_workspace directory and run the following command:

catkin_make

• Three folders – src, devel, build – will be generated inside the bfmc_workspace directory. In order to make this workspace available, you need to source the setup.bash file in the same terminal.

source devel/setup.bash

• Gazebo needs to know where the workspace's packages and models are:
  • export models_pkg to the GAZEBO_MODEL_PATH variable
  • export the src folders to ROS_PACKAGE_PATH variable

# You can either run these commands each time you want to use the workspace, or add them to the end of the `~/.bashrc` file and source it.
# Don't forget to replace {YOUR_USER} with your actually user name
export GAZEBO_MODEL_PATH="/home/{YOUR_USER}/Documents/BFMC_Simulator/bfmc_workspace/src/models_pkg:$GAZEBO_MODEL_PATH"
export ROS_PACKAGE_PATH="/home/{YOUR_USER}/Documents/BFMC_Simulator/bfmc_workspace/src:$ROS_PACKAGE_PATH"

• Finally, try running the following command:

# Depending on your machine, it may take 1 to 3 minutes for the world to completely load.
roslaunch sim_pkg map_with_all_objects.launch

• The [REST.cc:205] ERR may appear. In order to solve it, see this thread.

2. startup_workspace

• Open a terminal, navigate to the ~/Documents/BFMC_Simulator/startup_workspace directory and run the following commands:

source ~/Documents/BFMC_Simulator/startup_workspace/devel/setup.bash 
catkin_make
source devel/setup.bash

• With the simulator started, run the following command:

rosrun startup_package main.py

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Release notes

• Environmental elements added (people around the map)
• Ramp added;
• Made files executable. (BFMC_Simulator/startup_workspace/src/startup_package/src/main.py; BFMC_Simulator/bfmc_workspace/src/sim_pck/launch/bash_script/delay.sh; BFMC_Simulator/bfmc_workspace/src/traffic_light_pkg/src/tl_talker.py; BFMC_Simulator/bfmc_workspace/src/traffic_light_pkg/src/tl_listener.py)
• Fixed details in guide.
• Added highwy separators launchers.