Gazebo - Simulator

 

We test our system using the Gazebo simulator in ROS. We create a simple world with primitive objects (spheres, boxes) and add the robot to this world. Gazebo automatically simulates the depth and color data. It sends these in the form of registered point cloud messages which our system subscribes to. In our simulation, the frame rate for the point clouds is 1Hz, but our system is capable of speeds of at least 10 Hz (primarily bounded by network speeds).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                  Screenshot of the scene from Gazebo Simulator (ROS)

 

 

Gazebo also simulates the various controllers for the PR2 robot and so we are able to move the head on the robot as well. Our system creates a client that sends these commands to the robot.

 

The simulation is fairly representative of the real system and it should be relatively easy to transfer our system onto the real robot. RViz is the ROS 3D Robot Visualizer which visualizes the scene as simulated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RViz screenshot