Actor ROS Package

This package enables abstraction of the LTU ACTor autonomous development vehicle in ROS; adds a unified status message and control interface for the ACTor vehicle.

Dependencies

• ROS Noetic
• dbw_polaris_msgs: ROS messages for controlling a DataSeed Drive-By-Wire system installed in ACTor.

  This external package may need to be installed manually IF it does not work. ONE LINE BINARY INSTALL RECOMMENDED

• ACTor computer/laptop setup using ACTOR setup

  Only need if setting up the ACTor computer/laptop for the first time

• ethz_piksi_ros: ROS messages for interfacing with the Piksi GNSS receiver. Only required if using the Piksi GNSS receiver. If not, comment out related lines in CMakeLists.txt and other files

Installation

Download actor_ros package

# Go to <path_to_your_catkin_ws>/src/ directory
cd <path_to_your_catkin_ws>/src/

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/Aeolus96/actor_ros.git

Install Dependencies

# Go inside the cloned ROS package.
cd <path_to_your_catkin_ws>/src/actor_ros

# IMPORTANT: Make sure you are inside the actor_ros directory before running the install script

# Set executable permissions and Run the install script
chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

Watch for errors in the output. Warnings are normal for some of the dependencies.

# If later you encounter any import errors in python, you can manually run the following command from this directory
pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Usage

You can use the IGVC Simulator with this package. Make sure to remove older versions of the simulator, install the latest version and then launch actor_ros:

# Source ROS workspace
source <path_to_your_catkin_ws>/devel/setup.bash

# Launch with real vehicle
roslaunch actor_ros actor.launch

# OR Launch with simulated environment
roslaunch actor_ros actor.launch simulated:=true

Please make sure the IP addresses are correct between the two ACTor vehicles in the support_real.launch file

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you find any issues or have suggestions for improvements, please open an issue or submit a pull request on GitHub.

License

This software is released under the MIT License.