tum_simulator on Indigo

These packages are used to simulate the flying robot Ardrone in ROS environment using gazebo simulator. Totally they are 4 packages. Their functions are descript as below:

1. cvg_sim_gazebo: contains object models, sensor models, quadrocopter models, flying environment information and individual launch files for each objects and pure environment without any other objects.

2. cvg_sim_gazebo_plugins: contains gazebo plugins for the quadrocopter model. quadrotor_simple_controller is used to control the robot motion and deliver navigation information, such as: /ardrone/navdata. Others are plugins for sensors in the quadrocopter, such as: IMU sensor, sonar sensor, GPS sensor.

3. message_to_tf: is a package used to create a ros node, which transfers the ros topic /ground_truth/state to a /tf topic.

4. cvg_sim_msgs: contains message forms for the simulator.

Some packages are based on the tu-darmstadt-ros-pkg by Stefan Kohlbrecher, TU Darmstadt.

How to install the simulator:

1. Create a workspace for the simulator

   mkdir -p ~/tum_simulator_ws/src
   cd  ~/tum_simulator_ws/src
   catkin_init_workspace
   

2. Download dependencies

   git clone https://github.com/AutonomyLab/ardrone_autonomy.git	# The AR.Drone ROS driver
   git clone https://github.com/occomco/tum_simulator.git
   cd ..
   rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src --rosdistro indigo -y
   

3. Build the simulator

   catkin_make
   

4. Source the environment

   source devel/setup.bash
   

How to run a simulation:

1. Run a simulation by executing a launch file in cvg_sim_gazebo package:

   roslaunch cvg_sim_gazebo ardrone_testworld.launch