WaypointsGenerator

A ROS Waypoint Generator using robot's estimated pose on the map and GPS localization. Inspired on the project CIR-KIT Waypoint Manager.

Dependencies

• requests - Necessary to send the waypoints to a server. To install it:

    $ pip install requests
  

• flask - For running the test server. To install it:

    $ pip install flask
  

Messages

This project has two messages, Waypoint and Waypoint Array, which are implemented on the package cirkit_waypoint_manager_msgs.

Nodes

• cirkit_waypoint_generator: This node checks for new GPS data on "/fix" and, each time it receives a new message, it checks for the robot's estimated position on map. If this new position on map has a distance or rotation to the last waypoint greater than a pre-defined threshold (dist_th and yaw_th) then this new position is a waypoint. These waypoints are added to a list and then published on the topic "/waypoints". This node also allows to load points from a csv file.

• cirkit_waypoint_saver: This node subscribes to the "/waypoints" topic and store the received waypoints on a csv file.

• cirkit_waypoint_server: This node allows the user to load waypoints from a csv file and visualize them on RViz.

• route_generator: This node possess the function buildRoute, which is responsible for building a route based on a Waypoint IDs list. It also includes an example of usage, loading the waypoints from a file and building a pre-defined route.

• transfer_waypoints: This node loads waypoints from a csv file and send them to a server over a http request.

Waypoints' Storage - CSV File Format

The csv file must have one waypoint for each row and each of these rows must have the following format:

• id, x, y, z, Qx, Qy, Qz, Qw, status, status_service, latitude, longitude, altitude, covariance (9), covariance_type, is_searching_area, reach_threshold

Examples

Generate waypoints

Assuming roscore is already running.

$ rosrun cirkit_waypoint_generator cirkit_waypoint_generator

Setting yaw_th to 3.14 rad and dist_th to 2.0 meters:

$ rosrun cirkit_waypoint_generator cirkit_waypoint_generator _dist_th:=2.0 _yaw_th:=3.14

Loading waypoints from a csv file.

$ rosrun cirkit_waypoint_generator cirkit_waypoint_generator --load path_to_csv_file.csv

Save waypoints to csv

Assuming roscore and cirkit_waypoint_generator are already running.

$ rosrun cirkit_waypoint_generator cirkit_waypoint_saver

This will generate a new csv file on the current directory with a name based on the current system time.

Generate route

Assuming roscore is already running and there is a *.csv file with waypoints stored.

$ rosrun cirkit_waypoint_generator route_generator _waypoints_path:=path_to_waypoints_file.csv

Send Waypoints to a Server

Assuming roscore is already running.

$ rosrun transfer_waypoints send.py _waypoints_file:=path_to_waypoints_file.csv

This node sends each of these waypoints on a JSON with the following fields:

{
    "name": "Ponto 4", // Waypoint's ID is 4
    "lat": 49.9, // Latitude
    "lng": 8.9, // Longitude
    "map_id": 1, // For now, this is always 1
    "x": , 6.22// x coordinate of robot's estimated position (meters)
    "y": , -3.13// y coordinate of robot's estimated position (meters)
    "teta": -1.63, // Rotation of robot's estimated position, equivalent to yaw (measured in radians)
}

For tests there are csv files on transfer_waypoints/waypoints/. Also for tests, there is a test server made using flask which receives the waypoints and print them on the screen. To run this test server:

$ roscd transfer_waypoints
$ python src/testServer.py

Visualizing waypoints on RViz

While generating new waypoints using the node cirkit_waypoint_generator it's possible to check these waypoints on RViz subscribing to the following topics:

• /cube/update - Topic of type InteractiveMarkers. It shows a cube over each waypoint registered and a blue ring around it.

• /reach_threshold_markers - Topic of type MarkerArray. It shows a blue disk over the waypoint, representing a reach area around it.