Robot Gazebo Simulation

A Gazebo simulation environment for testing and developing Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) navigation algorithms for the RoboCon robot, optimized for ROS 2 Jazzy on Ubuntu 24.04.

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Overview

This package provides a complete simulation environment for:

• Testing RoboCon robot navigation algorithms
• Developing DRL-based navigation solutions
• Simulating robot behavior in custom environments
• Bridging ROS 2 and Gazebo topics for seamless integration

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Prerequisites

System Requirements

• Ubuntu 24.04
• ROS 2 Jazzy Jalisco
• Gazebo Harmonic (recommended) or Gazebo Fortress

Required Dependencies

# ROS 2 Jazzy
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ros-jazzy-desktop

# Gazebo Sim for ROS 2 Jazzy
sudo apt install ros-jazzy-ros-gz

# Additional ROS 2 tools
sudo apt install python3-colcon-common-extensions
sudo apt install python3-rosdep2
sudo apt install python3-pip

# Optional: Additional useful tools
sudo apt install git wget curl build-essential

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Installation

1. Create Workspace Directory

mkdir -p ~/gz_ws/src
cd ~/gz_ws/src

2. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/fuseai-fellowship/DRL-for-Mobile-Robot-Navigation.git

3. Initialize and Update rosdep

sudo rosdep init
rosdep update

4. Install Dependencies

cd ~/gz_ws
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y

5. Build the Workspace

colcon build

6. Source the Workspace

source ~/gz_ws/install/setup.bash

Tip: Add this to your .bashrc for permanent sourcing:

echo "source ~/gz_ws/install/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc

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Usage

Launch the Simulation

ros2 launch ros_gz_sim_demos gazebo_launch.xml

Alternative Launch Methods

# Launch with specific Gazebo version
ros2 launch ros_gz_sim_demos robocon_robot_test.launch.py gz_version:=harmonic

# Launch with verbose output
ros2 launch ros_gz_sim_demos robocon_robot_test.launch.py --verbose

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What This Launches

• Gazebo Sim with a custom world environment
• RoboCon robot model with sensors and controllers
• ROS-Gazebo bridge for topic communication
• Essential topic bridges for DRL navigation

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Available Topics (ROS 2 Jazzy)

Subscribed Topics

• /cmd_vel (geometry_msgs/msg/Twist) — Velocity commands for robot control

Published Topics

• /scan (sensor_msgs/msg/LaserScan) — Laser scan data from robot
• /odom (nav_msgs/msg/Odometry) — Robot odometry information
• /camera/image_raw (sensor_msgs/msg/Image) — Camera feed
• /imu (sensor_msgs/msg/Imu) — IMU data (if configured)

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