HOW TO – the main launch file

In a hurry? Just run that!

Note

Honestly, I don’t recommend to use this directly.

The launch file you should use is run_components.launch. By calling that in this way, the entire project will be run

with Gazebo and RViz
with SLAM/GMapping and move_base
with a bunch of useless messages on the screen

roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch

The INIT option – Run component by component

what about if you want to run just one component? Well, the launch file provides the option init:=false. In particular, it’s important to point out that the following does nothing: it just runs the ROS master.

roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false

run aRMOR

Running the aRMOR package is very simple:

roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_armor:=true

run the robot environment

Note

this ‘run.launch’ file exposes the most important parameters only for the project. If you need more options, consider to directly use the launch file robocluedo_robot_hunter run2.launch. For instance, maybe you want to run another world file which is located outside the worlds package. Another case is if you want to run the robot in RViz only: this launch file has some problem in this case.

In order to run the robot, you can use these arguments:

robot_env_type (default: gazebo) : the tools for the simulations to use

values:
- gazebo
- rviz
- gazeborviz
robot_nav_type (default: gmapping) : thetype of navigation stack to use

values:
- gmapping
- amcl (for the world assignment3.world only!)
world_name (default: assignment3.world) : the world file to execute

here are the bash commands:

# default launch for the environment
roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_robot:=true

# the complete command
roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_robot:=true robot_env_type:=gazebo robot_nav_type:=amcl world_name:=assignment3.world

run rosplan

you can easily launch the AI of the robot using the option launch_rosplan:=true.

roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_rosplan:=true

run the movement controller

roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_motion_controllers:=true

run the vision module

the vision module opens a new window shwing what the cameras are seeing.

roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_aruco:=true

run the Oracle

the option launch_oracle:=true launches two nodes: the real oracle for the third assignment, and the markers publisher.

# simple version
roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_oracle:=true

# the complete command
roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_oracle:=true publish_markers:=true

run the mission manager

for running the mission manager package, there are two main options:

launch_mission_manager_components:=true : launch the units inside the mission manager of the node, without the main node
launch_mission_manager:=true : launch the main node (not the components!)

# components only
roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_mission_manager_components:=true

# main node only
roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_mission_manager:=true

# the entire mission_manager package
roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_mission_manager_components:=true launch_mission_manager:=true

combine the launch options

of course, the init option allows you to combine different options. For example, if you need to run both aRMOR and the robot environment in one call, use this:

roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_armor:=true launch_robot:=true robot_nav_type:=amcl

HOW TO run the project

Here are the main commands for running this complex project.

step by step

Note

recommended for testing the project after the installation. In case of problems, remember that almost all the nodes in the project (especially the ones implemented in C++) have a so-called DEVELOP_MODE and other options to understand what’s wrong using logs on a shell.

In a hurry? And you want to run the project step by step? Well, this little bash script is for you:

# launch the robot environment
roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_robot:=true robot_env_type:=gazebo robot_nav_type:=amcl 1>/dev/null 2>/dev/null

# launch the oracle
roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_oracle:=true

# launch the motion controllers
roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_motion_controllers:=true 1>/dev/null 2>/dev/null

# launch the vision system
roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_aruco:=true

# launch aRMOR interface
roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_armor:=true

# launch the robocluedo ROSPlan package
roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_rosplan:=true

# launch the mission manager units
roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_mission_manager_components:=true

# launch the main node
roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_mission_manager:=true

the fastest way to run the project

this command also contains the most important settings for running the project:

roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch robot_env_type:=gazeborviz robot_nav_type:=gmapping

these options allows you to launch the roject using for instance amcl and gazebo only.

the suggested way

I strongly suggest to launch the project in this way:

don’t launch RViz: use Gazebo only
split the launch in two shells:
- the first one shows the output from the mission manager
- the second one runs everything else
suppress the output from the first shell
- using the option 1>/dev/null 2>/dev/null
use AMCL for the localisation

shell 1: the components of the architecture

roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch launch_mission_manager:=false robot_env_type:=gazebo robot_nav_type:=amcl 1>/dev/null 2>/dev/null

shell 2: the mission manager

roslaunch robocluedo_mission_manager run_components.launch init:=false launch_mission_manager:=true