Google Summer of Code 2018 - Robot Workcell Discovery

Repository for GSoC 2018 focusing on creation of a ROS package for Robotic Workcell exploration. The project is being done under the mentorship of Levi Armstrong and Alex Goins from SwRI and ROS Industrial.

1. Accepted projects under OSRF for GSoC 2018

2. Abstract for project on Robot WorkCell Discovery

3. Initial Project Proposal

1. Install wstool in order manage the repos inside the workspace

sudo apt install python-wstool

2. Set up catkin workspace with required packages

cd /path/to/catkin_ws 
wstool init src https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros-industrial/workcell_explorer/master/workcell_explorer.rosinstall
rosdep install --ignore-src --from-paths src

3. Finally, to build:

catkin build

4. Source the workspace

source devel/setup.bash

1. Launch Gazebo world + robot mounted with a Kinect camera

roslaunch myworkcell_support workcell_gazebo.launch 

2. Launch the MoveIt! planning execution

roslaunch myworkcell_moveit_config myworkcell_planning_execution.launch.xml

3. Launch the TSDF reconstruction node in the yak package

roslaunch yak launch_gazebo_robot.launch

4. Start the Octomap server

roslaunch nbv_planner octomap_mapping.launch

5. Start the exploration process

rosrun nbv_planner exploration_controller_node

6. ROS Service to extract mesh after deciding that the reconstruction is good enough.

rosservice call /get_mesh

1. Flipped Octomap

• Problem- Octomap is flipped 90 degrees with respect to the view of the Kinect.
• Potential solution- Issues with the URDF file.

2. Remove unncessary files from the package.

1. Integrate the yak library with the workflow. YAK library uses Kinect fusion with Truncated Signed Distance Fields(TSDFs) used for created a probabilistic representation of solid surfaces in 3-D space.

   1. Integrat reconstruction node and octomap server node with given package.[DONE]
   2. Integrate the exploration_controller_node with the given package.

2. Utilise the gl_depth_sim package to simulate organised depth camera data and test out the YAK package on the collected data.

1. Create a blog post to summarise Kinect fusion and mention how it's going to be used with TSDF for the project using yak library.