weijieyong / robot-multi-floor-navigation

Package for Clearpath Jackal robot to autonomously navigate through a multi-floor environment using an elevator.

Robot Multi Floor Navigation Package

This package enables the Clearpath Jackal robot to autonomously navigate through a multi-floor environment using an elevator. It utilizes Robot Operating System (ROS) and Gazebo simulation for development and testing.

Functionality

• Navigation to goal points
• Getting in and out of elevator
• Switching maps for appropriate floors automatically
• Localize after map switching

Simulation scenario

Navigate Clearpath Jackal autonomously through a series of waypoints to starting from floor 0 and ending at floor 1, by navigating through obstacles and using the elevator in the provided simulation world.

Here, the numbers denote the waypoints as follows:

1. Near fire hydrant floor 0: (4.0,-5.0,0.5)
2. In front of elevator floor 0: (3.0,-0.5,0.5)
3. Inside elevator floor 0: (0.0,-0.5,0.5)
4. Inside elevator floor 1: (0.0,-0.5,3.2)
5. In front of elevator floor 1: (3.0,-0.5,3.2)
6. Near fire hydrant floor 1: (4.0,5.0,3.2)

Install

Get dependencies

Ensure you have the following ROS packages installed:

Jackal Gazebo Dependencies:

If using ROS melodic, run:

$ sudo apt-get install ros-melodic-jackal-*

ROS Workspace Setup (Melodic)

1. Create a ROS workspace:

$ mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src
$ cd ~/catkin_ws/src

2. Clone this repository and the jackal elevator world repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/weijieyong/robot-multi-floor-navigation.git # for multi floor navigation
$ git clone https://bitbucket.org/swaroophs/jackal_elevator.git # for gazebo world

3. Build the workspace:

$ cd ~/catkin_ws/
$ catkin_make
$ source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash

Mapping

This package utilizes the gmapping package for generating maps within the simulation.

1. Launch the gmapping node.

roslaunch multi_floor_navigation jackal_elevator_gmapping.launch

2. Use the Interaction Marker in RViz to move the robot and generate a map.

3. Save the map for floor 0 using:

$ rosrun map_server map_saver -f <map_filename>.yaml

4. Edit the z_pos parameter in jackal_elevator_gmapping.launch and repeat steps 1-3 to save a map for floor 1.

Note: Pre-generated maps for both floors are already available in the maps folder.

Navigation

1. Start the navigation nodes.

roslaunch multi_floor_navigation jackal_elevator_nav.launch

2. Once the simulation is launched, run the following node to start navigating.

rosrun multi_floor_navigation multi_floor_navigation_node

The robot will then begin navigating between floors according to the defined waypoints.