- Clone this repository and [eufs_msgs](https://gitlab.com/eufs/eufs_msgs) under the same directory. Then, set the path of this directory as the EUFS_MASTER environment variable.
The basic usage of the simulation is in the left hand side of
the launcher window.
Here you can select the options with which you want to launch
the simulation. These options are described in more detail [below](#options).
Using the default options, this will launch an RQT with a steering GUI
and our ros_can_sim GUI, alongside a default RViz window.
In the ros_can_sim GUI you can select a mission from the
drop down menu, and press 'Set Mission'. This will publish
a `CanState` message to the `/ros_can/set_mission` topic.
After 5 seconds you should see the State changing from
`OFF` to `DRIVING`.
The car will now be able to drive around the track!
Commands can be sent to the car publishing an `AckermannDriveStamped`
message to the `/cmd` topic.
_Note:_
If you have selected `Manual Driving` and you want to use the
EUFS Robot Steering GUI without any additional nodes to transform the command,
you need to change the topic in the text field at the top of the GUI to
`/cmd`
# 4. Launch options <a name="options"></a>
Using the Track dropdown menu you can select which track to start the
simulation in:
|Name|Description|
|----|-----------|
|small_track|Small fixed trackdrive track used for rapid prototyping and consistency|
|skidpad|Pre-configured track as per the Formula Student rules|
|acceleration|Pre-configured track as per the Formula Student rules|
|rand|Randomly generated autocross/trackdrive track. One is provided by default with the sim but you can generate more with the GUI. For more, see the wiki.|
Additional options below:
|Option|Description|
|------|-----------|
|Vehicle model|Determines the dynamics of the car in simulation. This is done using the gazebo_race_car_model which allows you to make a custom vehicle model.
|RViz|Launches a default RViz window.|
|Use Simulated Perception|If enabled, a plugin simulates our perception stack including noise from the system fitted to real-world data. If this is disabled, then camera and lidar are fully simulated in simulation.
|Gazebo GUI|Starts the Gazebo GUI. Warning: this might kill a weak computer.|
|Ground Truth TF|Publishes ground truth state transform. Should be used if no localisation system is running. However, note that ground truth state is always publishes.
|Command mode|Describes whether the car should controlled by acceleration or velocity.|
A full manual of how to use the GUI is
[available here](Simulation/Launcher-Overview).
# 5. Additional sensors <a name="sensors"></a>
**Sensor suit of the car by default:**
- Velodyne VLP16 lidar
- ZED Stereo camera
- IMU
- GPS
- wheel odometry
# 6. Known issues <a name="issues"></a>
- Sometimes you might end up with 2 numpy installations at the same time. To fix this simply uninstall numpy with `pip uninstall numpy` as many times as you can. Then reinstall it with `pip install numpy` and everything should work as usual!
-**If you need to rapidly re-launch** the gui it is important that
you wait a few seconds (5 should be more than enough).
If you try and do it rapidly then you may cause the gui to launch
gazebo while gazebo is still shutting itself down. This will
crash the program and won't give a satisfactory error message
(it will say that it put errors in the log files, but the log files
do not exist). More information can be found in the README
in eufs_launcher
- When using RViz and the car is driving fast, you might notice
that the wheels are dragged behind the chassis of the car. This is a
limitation of the robot_state_publisher node of ROS and shouldn't
cause any issues apart from bad visuals.
- The random track generation is sometimes prone to making bad
tracks that nearly overlap. Before committing to generated track,
