Tank Tutorial for ROS

This tutorial explains how to use ROS for input/output in simulations for the “Tank” model, which is one of the sample models of Choreonoid. This tutorial is an extension of the Tank tutorial , which is based on the basic functions of Choreonoid, for ROS, and this tutorial is structured so that you can refer to the related pages as necessary. If you have not yet learned the basics of simulations using Choreonoid, it is recommended that you go through the basic Tank tutorial first, and then move on to this tutorial.

This tutorial uses C++ to implement the control programs, and uses ROS functions with the roscpp library. Once you learn this method, you will be able to utilize various functions and assets of ROS by coding using the roscpp library. For more information on the roscpp library, please refer to the roscpp manual and other explanatory documents separately.

• Preparation
  • Setup of ROS and Choreonoid related packages
  • Creating a package for the tutorial
  • Editing package.xml
  • File structure of the package
  • Starting the ROS master
  • Start the working terminal
• Step 1: Control Tank by subscribing to Joy topic
  • Starting the Choreonoid node
  • Creating a simulation project
  • Preparing the gamepad
  • Sending gamepad status by joy node
    • Publishing joy topic
    • Installing and starting joy node
    • Checking the joy topic
  • Choreonoid version joy node
  • Building the controller
    • Source code of the controller
    • Editing the CMakeLists.txt file
    • Adding CMakeLists.txt to the src directory
    • Building the controller
  • Introducing the controller
  • Running the simulation and controlling the Tank robot with the gamepad
  • Checking the Joytopic connection status
  • Introducing a launch file
  • Source code description
  • Tip: Make sure you are running in a ROS environment.
• Step 2: Publish the JointState topic to output the state of Tank
  • Overview
  • Controller for state output
  • Basic structure of the controller for state output
  • Creating a node handle
  • Creating a publisher
  • Publishing a joint state
  • Introducing a controller for state output
  • Check the output topic
  • Displaying joint angle graph
• Step 3: Subscribe to the JointState topic to display the state of Tank
  • Overview
  • Creating a Choreonoid project for state visualization
  • Introducing a controller for state visualization
    • Source code
    • Building the controller
    • Introducing in the project
  • Running the simulation & visualization project
  • Creating the launch file
  • Source code description
    • Header inclusion
    • Member Variables
    • Initialization by the configure function
    • Updating the model state
    • Finalization Process
• Step 4: Output the state of the acceleration sensor and rate gyro
  • Overview
  • Controller for outputting sensing values
  • sensor_msgs/Imu type message
  • Getting the sensor device
  • Obtaining sensor state values
  • Publishing sensing values
  • Introducing the controller
  • Checking the output topics
  • Displaying acceleration / angular velocity graph
• Step 5: Enhance the Tank state display by subscribing to sensor information topic
  • Overview
  • Controller for obtaining sensor states
  • Introducing the controller for obtaining sensor states
  • Displaying sensor state values by the body state view
  • Action on collision
  • Introducing the sensor visualizer item
  • Source Code Description
    • Header inclusion
    • Member variables
    • Initialization process
    • Updating the states of sensor objects
    • Model vibration animation
    • Finalization process