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An inexpensive, autonomous, regolith-mining robot

Shell 10.15% JavaScript 6.68% CMake 1.83% Python 81.29% Dockerfile 0.05%

nasa dust-to-thrust fsi autonomy robotics computer-vison space-exploration lunar-rover martian-rover ros

ez-rassor's Introduction

EZ-RASSOR

The EZ-RASSOR (EZ Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot) is an inexpensive, autonomous, regolith-mining robot designed to mimic the look and abilities of NASA’s RASSOR on a smaller scale. The primary goal of the EZ-RASSOR is to provide a demonstration robot for visitors at the Kennedy Space Center. The EZ-RASSOR can:

Rove across light-to-moderate terrain
Collect regolith in rotating drums
Return regolith to hoppers located away from dig sites
Execute pre-planned routines
Autonomously navigate around possible obstructions
Cooperate in a swarm of other EZ-RASSORs

For more information, our wiki contains a high-level overview of the EZ-RASSOR and its many components.

POTENTIAL CONTRIBUTORS: check out the contributing guidelines and the license.

INSTALLATION PREREQUISITES

TYPICAL INSTALLATION

First, clone this repository with git.

git clone https://github.com/FlaSpaceInst/EZ-RASSOR.git
cd EZ-RASSOR

Then, let the develop.sh script do the heavy lifting! On Ubuntu Xenial or Ubuntu Bionic, creating a catkin workspace and building all packages is achieved with these commands:

# By default, all ROS packages in the *packages* folder will be installed
sh develop.sh setup
sh develop.sh link
sh develop.sh resolve
sh develop.sh build
sh develop.sh install
** RESTART TERMINAL **

If you encounter Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code..., try to fix the broken install with the following command, then rerun the original command:

sudo apt --fix-broken install
** RERUN ORIGINAL COMMAND **

Everything's installed now! Proceed to the usage section.

CUSTOMIZED INSTALLATION

If you want to install specific EZ-RASSOR packages, you can use the same develop.sh script:

Make sure you have already run the setup command at least once:

sh develop.sh setup

Then, you can call the relink function and use -o to pass in the package name(s) you would like to install:

sh develop.sh relink -o ezrassor_sim_control ezrassor_sim_description ezrassor_sim_gazebo
sh develop.sh build
sh develop.sh install

Alternatively, you can also call the relink function and use the -e flag to make the script install all but the specified package(s):

sh develop.sh relink -e ezrassor_swarm_control

USAGE

The EZ-RASSOR is controlled via a collection of launch files. These files contain lists of commands that start up the robot's systems and the simulation environment. They are read, understood, and executed by a core ROS utility called roslaunch, whose general syntax is as follows:

roslaunch <package> <launch file> [arguments...]

Each launch file is located in one of our packages, and the most important launch files are located in the ezrassor_launcher package. To learn more about a specific launch file, visit that launch file's package's wiki page (via the navigation menu on the right). Here are some example commands that show launch files in action:

# Launch the simulation with a single robot controlled by the mobile app.
roslaunch ezrassor_launcher configurable_simulation.launch control_methods:=app

# Launch the simulation with a single robot controlled by an autonomous loop.
roslaunch ezrassor_launcher configurable_simulation.launch control_methods:=autonomy

# Launch the simulation with two robots, both controlled by gamepads, on the moon.
roslaunch ezrassor_launcher configurable_simulation.launch \
    control_methods:=gamepad \
    world:=moon \
    robot_count:=2 \
    joysticks:="0 1" \
    spawn_x_coords:="-1 1" \
    spawn_y_coords:="1 -1"

# Launch the communication system in dual mode: manual and autonomous control together.
roslaunch ezrassor_launcher configurable_communication.launch control_methods:="app gamepad autonomy"

Please read the wiki page for the ezrassor_launcher to learn more about what the main launch files can do.

AUTHORS

EZ-RASSOR 1.0 Team

EZ-RASSOR 2.0 (GPS-Denied Autonomous Navigation) Team

EZ-RASSOR 2.0 (Swarm Control & Management) Team

EZ-RASSOR 3.0 (Swarm Build Pad) Team

CITATION

Please include the following citation when using EZRASSOR for a paper:

@misc{ezrassor_2021,
  author = {EZRASSOR Team},
  title = {EZRASSOR},
  year = {2021},
  publisher = {GitHub},
  journal = {GitHub repository},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/FlaSpaceInst/EZ-RASSOR}}
}

ez-rassor's People

Contributors

Stargazers

Watchers

Forkers

camerontaylorfl gilchristb20 weihli shaunhyp57 blendercn-org cloudy nnguyen83 ffermo gunnarsundberg kirsten-wright99 hungjn lucagglbnc robertforristall joebrashear1 anrdyshmrdy traclabs hej81107

ez-rassor's Issues

Rework message encoding, it presently will create side effects

Example:
00001000 -> move arm up
10000000 -> rotate drum forward !!also stops arm movement (undesired)!!

Creating On-Board Network

Using the hardware to create a Wi-Fi access point for the mobile devices, and desktops to be able to connect. This would allow the Pi to communicate to an endpoint without relying on a central Wi-Fi network.

Fix SLAM to work with stereo cameras

Automate process of opening RViz and Gazebo using ezrassor.sh script

Add the following scripts to ezrassor.sh

scripts.zip

Set camera widget to add cameras automatically

The camera widget currently has the rostopics that it will subscribe to hard-coded in. Have it add the topics automatically.

add --ros and subscripts?

first argument will be the particular graph to run

maybe store them in scripts/graphs

e.g.

scripts/graphs/ezrc.sh

ezrc:
rosrun blah blah blah

add launch command for ezrc ros graph

Modify the URDF to allow it to open in RVIZ and publish instructions to the docs folder.

We can now convert between sdf and urdf to get the model to launch in Gazebo. However, the model also has to launch in RVIZ. We need documentation on how to make this happen as well as code tweaks (if applicable).

fix dependency issue with --install ros

Hey Tiger, I ran the
./ezrassor.sh --install ros
command and got an error about unmet dependencies.

The error pointed to the fact that there were dependencies with ros-kinetic-desktop that would not be installed.

To fix, I ran
sudo apt install ros-kinetic-desktop
and then your install script and it worked!

Add functional wheels to the EZ-RASSOR model

The model should have wheels made from Blender mesh files to make the simulation more realistic.

Finish all API calls from mobile app controller.

Ensure that each button pressed within the app sends the proper command to the Flask API.

Code prototype ROS hierarchy

Develop basic flow of information throughout ROS.

Add stereo cameras to the front and back of the EZ-RASSOR model

For the simulation to be fully functional, the EZ-RASSOR will have to have stero cameras on both sides of the model so that the AI team can test.

Develop Auto-Drive Function

Develop the Auto-Drive function and implement adjustments for vision detected obstacles.

make workspace an env variable

Support optional argument to use non-default (from .workspace) and save that permanently in bashrc.

Fix camera issue in the widget

The camera feed size is compressed and needs to be fixed. This is especially apparent when viewing the feed in a New Window, where the object then displays correctly.

Fix robot model for Gazebo

We have a working robot model but the wheels and drums are not spinning correctly. It needs to be fixed to provide basic movement.

Create an installation script that installs packages in a ROSian way

Remove ROS option.
Rework options:
--gazebo (also install all of ROS full for Ubuntu server)
--ezrc (install ros core for raspbian)

Create ROS node for wheels

make --relink delete all symlinks first

Finish script to install ROS and configure catkin/packages

Add Blender mesh for the rotating drums to the EZ-RASSOR model

The wheels on the EZ-RASSOR are realistic but the drums are still normal cylinders. A realistic drum will have to be made in Blender and then attached to the model.

Create ROS node for drums

make arms_node move the arms

Add missing dependencies to ezrassor.sh

For AI:
sudo apt install libsuitesparse-dev libqglviewer-dev-qt4 ros-kinetic-libg2o ros-kinetic-opencv3
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libQGLViewer-qt4.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libQGLViewer.so
sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-ros-control ros-kinetic-ros-controllers

For ROS joy:
sudo apt install ros-kinetic-joy
sudo jstest /dev/input/js1
sudo chmod a+rw /dev/input/js1

Setup costmap_2d to work with SLAM

Add the costmap_2d package and set up the package to utilize the SLAM point cloud to generate 2d occupancy grid.

make drums_node rotate the drums

Add IMU and Encoder sensors to Gazebo Robot model.

In order for the EZ-RASSOR to navigate the environment we are going to need sensors that will allow us to localize it in 3D space. The cameras will work to observe the environment and obstacles, as well as create the point cloud, but we need to know where we are on the map in order to plan paths for target locations. The IMU and Encoder data will help with that.