Nav Simulation Bringup Housecleaning

src/description/config/athena_drive_sim_controllers.yaml

@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ controller_manager:
 ackermann_steering_controller:
   ros__parameters:
     # Joint names
-    rear_wheels_names: ["propulsion_fl_joint", "propulsion_fr_joint"]
+    rear_wheels_names: ["propulsion_bl_joint", "propulsion_br_joint"]
     front_wheels_names: ["steer_fl_joint", "steer_fr_joint"]
 
     # Vehicle dimensions

src/description/urdf/athena_drive/athena_drive_macro.ros2_control.xacro

@@ -111,6 +111,7 @@
 
 
   <joint name="${prefix}propulsion_br_joint">
+    <command_interface name="velocity"/>
     <state_interface name="position">
       <param name="initial_value">0.0</param>
     </state_interface>
@@ -119,6 +120,7 @@
 
 
   <joint name="${prefix}propulsion_bl_joint">
+    <command_interface name="velocity"/>
     <state_interface name="position">
       <param name="initial_value">0.0</param>
     </state_interface>

src/simulation/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+# simulation
+
+## Common Issues
+
+### Missing terrain.dae file
+
+You may run into issues with a missing terrain.dae file. The issue is that the `terrain.dae` file is stored in **Git LFS** (Large File Storage), but hasn't been downloaded. To fix this, do the following:
+
+1. Install git-lfs if not already installed
+```bash
+sudo apt install git-lfs
+```
+
+2. Initialize git-lfs in your local repo
+```bash
+git lfs install
+```
+
+3. Pull the actual LFS files
+```bash
+git lfs pull
+```
+
+### Ground truth TF publisher not found
+
+If you get an error like `executable 'ground_truth_tf_publisher.py' not found on the libexec directory` when launching with `publish_ground_truth_tf:=true`, the script needs executable permissions.
+
+Fix it by running:
+```bash
+chmod +x src/simulation/scripts/ground_truth_tf_publisher.py
+colcon build --packages-select simulation
+source install/setup.bash
+```

src/simulation/launch/bridge.launch.py

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ def generate_launch_description():
             name='imu_bridge',
             output='screen',
             arguments=[
-                '/imu@sensor_msgs/msg/Imu@gz.msgs.IMU',
+                '/imu@sensor_msgs/msg/Imu[gz.msgs.IMU',
             ],
         ),
 

src/simulation/launch/bringup.launch.py

@@ -59,8 +59,7 @@ def generate_launch_description():
     gazebo = IncludeLaunchDescription(
         PythonLaunchDescriptionSource([gazebo_launch]),
         launch_arguments=[
-            ('use_sim_time', LaunchConfiguration('use_sim_time')),
-            ('world', LaunchConfiguration('world')),
+            ('world', LaunchConfiguration('world')),                    # World file taken from description/worlds/
         ]
     )
 

src/simulation/launch/gz_sim.launch.py

@@ -7,9 +7,6 @@
 from launch.substitutions import LaunchConfiguration, PathJoinSubstitution
 
 ARGUMENTS = [
-    DeclareLaunchArgument('use_sim_time', default_value='true',
-                          choices=['true', 'false'],
-                          description='use_sim_time'),
     DeclareLaunchArgument('world', default_value='empty.sdf',
                           description='Gazebo world file'),
 ]
@@ -37,7 +34,7 @@ def generate_launch_description():
         launch_arguments=[
             ('gz_args', [world_path,
                         ' -r',
-                        ' -v 4']
+                        ' -v 4']        # Verbosity level, 0=errors only, 4=debug
             )
         ]
     )

src/simulation/launch/spawn.launch.py

@@ -16,18 +16,20 @@
                           description='use_sim_time'),
     DeclareLaunchArgument('namespace', default_value='',
                           description='Robot namespace'),
+    DeclareLaunchArgument('world_name', default_value='',
+                          description='World name'),
 
 ]
 
 def generate_launch_description():
-    pkg_share = get_package_share_directory('description')
+    pkg_description = get_package_share_directory('description')
 
-    urdf_file = os.path.join(pkg_share, 'urdf', 'athena_drive.urdf.xacro')
-    controllers_file = os.path.join(pkg_share, 'config', 'athena_drive_sim_controllers.yaml')
+    urdf_file = os.path.join(pkg_description, 'urdf', 'athena_drive.urdf.xacro')
+    controllers_file = os.path.join(pkg_description, 'config', 'athena_drive_sim_controllers.yaml')
 
 
     namespace = LaunchConfiguration('namespace')
-    robot_name = 'rover'
+    robot_name = 'athena'
 
     robot_description_content = Command([
         'xacro ', urdf_file,
@@ -57,6 +59,7 @@ def generate_launch_description():
             package='ros_gz_sim',
             executable='create',
             arguments=['-name', robot_name,
+                       '-world', LaunchConfiguration('world_name'),
                        '-x', '0.0',
                        '-y', '0.0',
                        '-z', '3.0',