mission_control_rafcon_statemachines

This repo contains all common rafcon statemachines which are used in context with mission control, namely interfacing with ROSMC.

The structure of this repository is as follows:

• mission_executor: RACON statemachine which communicates with ROSMC
• template: example of robot-specific RAFCON statemachines used in 'mission_executor'

How it works?

We use the same statemachine 'mission_executor' for every robot. To achieve this, a RAFCON config file config.yaml needs to be prepared like the following example:

LIBRARY_PATHS:
    VIRTUAL_LINK_TO_ACTIONS: /PATH/TO/THIS/REPO/template
    mission_control: /PATH/TO/THIS/REPO
    ...
    #(and other libraries necessary to compose high-level skills!)
    ...

The library name 'VIRTUAL_LINK_TO_ACTIONS' is reserved and should not be changed. The 'mission_executor' inside the library 'mission_control' includes a robot-specific statemachines as a library named 'VIRTUAL_LINK_TO_ACTIONS'.

Therefore, 'mission_executor' can be instantiated for different robots by changing the reference of 'VIRTUAL_LINK_TO_ACTIONS' in your rafcon config file.

Get started on your system

It is recommended to use Git submodule. Suppose you implement your robot-specific statemachines in '/home/proj_statemachines'. First, we clone this repo as a Git submodule;

• cd /home/proj_statemachines
• git submodule init (only once per local repository)
• git submodule add https://github.com/DLR-RM/mission_control_rafcon_statemachines.git modules/mission_control

This module also requires the ROS module;

• git submodule add https://github.com/DLR-RM/RAFCON-ros-state-machines.git modules/ros

Then, copy 'template' into '/home/proj_statemachines', adjust RAFCON config file, and start RAFCON;

• cp -r /PATH/TO/THIS/REPO/template/* /home/proj_statemachines/mission_control_interface/
• Adjust your RAFCON config file, e.g.

  LIBRARY_PATHS:
      VIRTUAL_LINK_TO_ACTIONS: /home/proj_statemachines/mission_control_interface
      modules: /home/proj_statemachines/modules
      mission_control_interface: /home/proj_statemachines/mission_control_interface
      ...
      #(and other libraries necessary to compose high-level skills!)
      ...

• Start RAFCON with the config file
• Open the statemachine 'modules/mission_control/mission_executor/mission_executor'

Now your 'mission_executor' is configured with /home/proj_statemachines/mission_control_interface. Therefore, the last step is to adjust/implement this interface RAFCON library. Inside the copy of the template (here we named it as 'mission_control_interface') are organized as follows:

• 'initialize': custom initialization procedures
• 'custom_observer': custom observer procedures
• 'custom_mission_preemption_handler': custom mission preemption procedures
• 'decider': statemachine which parses mission data and triggers the next skill to execute
• 'robot_skills':
  • robot-specific high-level skills
  • these statemachines are used as a library in the 'decider'. Therefore, if you add/delete/rename skills or change input parameters of them, you also need to adapt the 'decider' accordingly.

Examples of integration

For more concrete examples, please refer to

• rosmc_turtlesim_statemachines: integration with turtlesim