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Software for the AutoRally research platform.

AutoRally Platform Website

AutoRally Youtube Channel

Platform Paper

BibTex:

@article{goldfain2019autorally,  title={AutoRally: An Open Platform for Aggressive Autonomous Driving},  author={Goldfain, Brian and Drews, Paul and You, Changxi and Barulic, Matthew and Velev, Orlin and Tsiotras, Panagiotis and Rehg, James M},  journal={IEEE Control Systems Magazine},  volume={39},  number={1},  pages={26--55},  year={2019},  publisher={IEEE}}

We welcome bug fixes, ehancements, new features, andfeedback!

Please submit pull requests to themelodic-devel branch that conform to theROS C++ Style Guide. We use Gitflow, so master branch is reserved for releases.

1. Install Prerequisites
2. Clone repository
3. Install AutoRally ROS Dependencies
4. Compilation/Running
5. Generate Documentation
6. Test Setup in Simulation
7. Autonomous Driving in Simulation

1. InstallUbuntu 18.04 64-bit

2. Install required packages

   sudo apt install git doxygen openssh-server libusb-dev texinfo

   ROS Melodic only supports Python 2.7. Before installing Python packages, you need to ensure thatpython points to Python 2.7, e.g., by setting up a Python 2.7conda environment:

   conda create -n my_ros_env python=2.7source activate my_ros_envconda install defusedxmlconda install -c jdh88 rospkg

   The following tools are recommended, but not required for this project.

   • cutecom
   • cmake-curses-gui
   • synaptic
   • python-termcolor

   sudo apt install cutecom cmake-curses-gui synaptic python-termcolor

3. Install ros-melodic-desktop-full

4. Install MPPI Dependencies (if you have a GPU and will run MPPI)

   The core idea behind MPPI is to sample thousands of trajectories really fast. This is accomplished by implementing the sampling step on a GPU, for which you will need CUDA. We also use an external library to load python's numpy zip archives (.npz files) into C++.

   • Install CUDA
   • Install CNPY

5. Install gtsam

   Follow the gtsamQuick Start guide to clone and install thedevelop branch of gtsam.

   Instead ofcmake .., use:

   cmake -DGTSAM_INSTALL_GEOGRAPHICLIB=ON -DGTSAM_WITH_EIGEN_MKL=OFF ..

   Once install is complete, make sure linux can see the shared library:

   sudo ldconfig

6. Update to latest version of gazebo 9.XX

   You will want to be on the latest version of gazebo 9.

Get the autorally repository in acatkin workspace. The suggested location is~/catkin_ws/src/, but any valid catkin worskspace source folder will work. We suggest forking over cloning if you will be working with the code.

Also clone the IMU code and Pointgrey camera drivers into the same catkin workspace:

git clone https://github.com/AutoRally/imu_3dm_gx4.gitgit clone https://github.com/ros-drivers/pointgrey_camera_driver.git

Since there are no pre-built drivers for Melodic, followthese instructions to build the driver yourself.

• The SDK can be downloadedhere. The file to download isflycapture2-2.13.3.31-amd64-pkg_Ubuntu18.04.tgz.
• You may need to runsudo apt --fix-broken install after installing the suggested packages and before runningsudo sh install_flycapture.sh.

Within the catkin workspace folder, run this command to install the packages this project depends on.

rosdep install --from-path src --ignore-src -y

First, check your Eigen version withpkg-config --modversion eigen3. If you don't have at least version 3.3.5,upgrade Eigen by following "Method 2" within the includedINSTALL file.

Then, to compile and install, runcatkin_make from the catkin workspace folder. If your version of CUDA does not supportgcc-7, you may need to use

catkin_make -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=gcc-6 -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=g++-6

Due to the additional requirement of ROS's distributed launch system, you must run

source src/autorally/autorally_util/setupEnvLocal.sh

before using any AutoRally components. See thewiki for more information about how to set this system up for distributed launches on your vehicle platform.

Note: If you are unfamiliar with catkin, please know that you must runsource catkin_ws/devel/setup.sh before ROS will be able to locate the autorally packages (and thus you must run this before sourcingsetupEnvLocal.sh). This line can be added to your ~/.bashrc file so that it is automatically run on opening a terminal.

You can generate or update code documentation by runningdoxygen inautorally/.

To view code documentation openautorally/doc/html/index.html in a web browser.

roslaunch autorally_gazebo autoRallyTrackGazeboSim.launch

You can use a USB gamepad to drive the simulated platform around. On startup, therunstop message published by thejoystick node isfalse. Press any of the buttons by the right stick (normally labelled X, Y, A, B or square, triangle, X, circle) to toggle the published value.

Verify runstop motion is enabled by looking at therunstopMotionEnabled field in the/chassisState topic (rostopic echo /chassisState).

If you aren't using a gamepad, you will have to configure another source of runstop information for the platform to move:

• Comment out the line<include file="$(find autorally_control)/launch/joystickController.launch" /> near the end ofautorally_gazebo/launch/autoRallyTrackGazeboSim.launch

• rosrun rqt_publisher rqt_publisher

and configure rqt_publisher to publish a message to topic/runstop of typeautorally_msgs/runstop at 1 Hz withsender set torqt_publisher andmotionEnabled set totrue.

• Verify thatrunstopMotionEnabled istrue in/chassisState topic.

At the end of this section the robot will be driving autonomously in simulation using controllers available inautorally_control.

Position the robot in the same spot as when the simulation starts and make sure runstop motion should is enabled (set totrue).

roslaunch autorally_control waypointFollower.launch

roslaunch autorally_control constantSpeedController.launchrosrun rqt_publisher rqt_publisher

Configure a publisher on topicconstantSpeedController/speedCommand of typestd_msgs/Float64 at rate 10 with value of 3 (you can adjust he value once everything is running). The value is the target velocity in m/s, andas soon as you do this the platform should move if motion is enabled.

If the robot turns and hits the barrier it's probably because the state estimator has not converged, so its orientation estimate is incorrect. Just select the track barriers and move them up to allow the robot to continue driving, and the estimator should converge and the vehicle will return to within the barriers.

More detailed explanations of the controllers and state estimator can be found on thewiki:

• State estimator
• Waypoint follower
• Constant speed controller
• MPPI Controller

Controlling the AutoRally platform is a tutorial for how your own controller can control the AutoRally platform (in simulation or on hardware).

Running Vehicles in Simulation is a tutorial on how run gazebo in the two different worlds and with multiple vehicles.

If you are configuring a physical AutoRally platform, the next step is to configure the compute box, all of the peripherals, and the launch system. Those instructions are found in thePlatform Configuration Instructions.