Astrobee ROS Guest Science Demo

This package contains two simple examples to interface custom ROS nodes for autonomous control: one using Python - nodes/python_ros_node_template.py - and one using C++ - nodes/cpp_ros_node_template.py. Both nodes have associated launch files under the launch/ directory.

Installation

To install this package, make sure that you follow the Astrobee Installation Guide for building the code natively.

Assuming your catkin workspace is set at ~/catkin_ws, then

cd ~/catkin_ws
git clone https://github.com/Pedro-Roque/astrobee_ros_demo.git src/astrobee_ros_demo
catkin build
source devel/setup.bash

NOTE: If the package python-catkin-tools is not installed, replace catkin build with catkin_make.

Run an Example

Once the installation is done, a simple example can be run with either the cpp_template_interface.launch or python_template_interface.launch. To this end, make sure that you have the most up-to-date version of the Astrobee Simulator.

1. Start the simulator with

roslaunch astrobee_ros_demo astrobee_sim.launch

2. Launch the template interface, for instance

roslaunch astrobee_ros_demo python_template_interface.launch

3. Make sure that Honey is not in a faulty state by overriding its state with

rostopic pub /honey/mgt/sys_monitor/state ff_msgs/FaultState '{state: 0}'

4. At this point, the template node should show "Sleeping..." as a ROS Info message. This means that the node is waiting ot be started. To start the node, call the starting service with

rosservice call /honey/start "data: true"

At this point, the template node output should show "Elapsed time: 0" as a ROS Info message, since there is no control input being generated.

How to interface my own control algorithm?

This package serves as a template for those looking to use the Astrobee for autonomous operations. Your controllers can be included directly on the templated code, by modifying the variables self.u_traj in Python or control_input_ in C++. This can be accomplished either by

1. Subscribing to another node that runs your control method that modifies these variables directly, or
2. Modifying the template to include your control method in the class itself

A list of packages interfacing with Astrobee similarly are:

1. ReSwarm DMPC: unit tests and formation control for a group of Astrobee's

Contributing

Contributions to this repository to include more functionality are welcome, as long as they follow these guidelines:

1. Python code should follow PEP-8 guidelines (exceptions are made for E501 as long as each line is not over 120 characters and W503)
2. Templates should be atomic and properly documented (for Python, Sphinx is recommended, while for C++ Doxygen with Google style)
3. A basic Readme should be provided on how to use the added code or modifications to an existing Readme should be suggested

Acknowledgements

A special thanks goes for Brian Coltin (@bcoltin) and Rubén Ruiz (@rgarciaruiz), as well as to all the Astrobee Ops team, for their support in-view of the MPP ReSWARM test sessions and Astrobee Flight Software. A special thanks also to Prof. Rodrigo Ventura for the long-time cooperation that led to this, and to Prof. Dimos Dimarogonas for the continued support and supervision. This package was built based-off contributions from Bryce Doerr, Keenan Albee, Monica Ekal, and Pedro Roque.