CrazyS

| CrazyS build status | | |-----------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

CrazyS is an extension of the ROS package RotorS, aimed to modeling, developing and integrating the Crazyflie 2.0 nano-quadcopter in the physics based simulation environment Gazebo. The contribution can be also considered as a reference guide for expanding the RotorS functionalities in the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) field, by facilitating the integration of new aircraft.

Such simulation platform allows to understand quickly the behavior of the flight control system by comparing and evaluating different indoor and outdoor scenarios, with a details level quite close to reality. The proposed extension expands RotorS capabilities by considering the Crazyflie 2.0 physical model and its flight control system, as well (the 2018.01.1 firmware release).

A simple case study is considered (crazyflie2_hovering_example.launch) in order to show how the package works and the validity of the employed dynamical model together the control architecture of the quadrotor. The code is released under Apache license, thus making it available for scientific and educational activities.

The platform was developed using Ubuntu 16.04 and the Kinetic Kame version of ROS, but it is also fully compatible with Ubuntu 18.04 along with the Melodic Morenia distribution of ROS and Ubuntu 20.0.4 along with the Noetic Ninjemys release. Although backwards compatibility is guarantee, i.e., the platform is fully compatible with Indigo Igloo version of ROS and Ubuntu 14.04, such configuration is not recommended since the ROS support is expected to be closed in April 2019.

Below we provide the instructions necessary for getting started. See CrazyS' wiki for more instructions and examples.

If you are using this simulator for research purposes especially for your publication, please take a look at the Publications page. The page contains the core papers and all related works (using the platform). For the sake of simplicity, here the references to the core papers are reported.

@INBOOK{Silano2019ROSVolume4,
  author = {Silano, G. and Iannelli, L.},
  editor = {Koubaa, A.},
  title = {Robot Operating System (ROS): The Complete Reference (Volume 4)},
  chapter = {{CrazyS: a software-in-the-loop simulation platform for the Crazyflie 2.0 nano-quadcopter}},
  publisher = {Springer International Publishing},
  pages = {81--115},
  isbn = {978-3-030-20190-6},
  doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-20190-6_4},
  link = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-20190-6_4},
  year = {2020}
}

@INPROCEEDINGS{Silano2018MED,
  author = {Silano, G. and Aucone, E. and Iannelli, L.},
  booktitle = {2018 26th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation (MED)},
  title = {{CrazyS: A Software-In-The-Loop Platform for the Crazyflie 2.0 Nano-Quadcopter}},
  year = {2018},
  pages = {352--357},
  doi = {10.1109/MED.2018.8442759},
  issn = {2473-3504},
  month = June,
  link = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8442759},  
}

To facilitate the use of the repository, in addition to the installation instructions, the following are links to two virtual machines created using Oracle VirtualBox.

Ubuntu 16.04 with ROS Kinetic and Gazebo 7

Ubuntu 16.04 with ROS Kinetic and Gazebo 9

USER: user
PASS: password
Keyboard layout: Italian
Language: English

Installation Instructions - Ubuntu 20.04 with ROS Noetic and Gazebo 11

To use the code developed and stored in this repository some preliminary actions are needed. They are listed below.

1. Install and initialize ROS Melodic desktop full, additional ROS packages, catkin-tools, and wstool:

$ sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list'
$ sudo apt install curl # if you haven't already installed curl
$ curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.asc | sudo apt-key add -
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install ros-noetic-desktop-full ros-noetic-joy ros-noetic-octomap-ros ros-noetic-mavlink
$ sudo apt install ros-noetic-octomap-mapping ros-noetic-control-toolbox
$ sudo apt install python3-vcstool python3-catkin-tools protobuf-compiler libgoogle-glog-dev
$ sudo rosdep init
$ rosdep update
$ echo "source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
$ source ~/.bashrc
$ sudo apt-get install python3-rosdep python3-wstool ros-noetic-ros libgoogle-glog-dev

2. If you don't have ROS workspace yet you can do so by

$ mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src
$ cd ~/catkin_ws/src
$ catkin_init_workspace  # initialize your catkin workspace
$ cd ~/catkin_ws/
$ catkin init
$ cd ~/catkin_ws/src
$ git clone -b dev/ros-noetic https://github.com/gsilano/CrazyS.git
$ git clone -b med18_gazebo9 https://github.com/gsilano/mav_comm.git
$ cd ~/catkin_ws

3. Build your workspace with python_catkin_tools (therefore you need python_catkin_tools)

$ rosdep install --from-paths src -i
$ rosdep update
$ catkin config --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCATKIN_ENABLE_TESTING=False
$ catkin build

4. Add sourcing to your .bashrc file

$ echo "source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
$ source ~/.bashrc

In the event the cmd /opt/ros/melodic/lib/gazebo_ros/gzserver -u -e ode appear, the solution proposed in #40 temporany fixes the issue.

$ cp build/rotors_gazebo_plugins/libmav_msgs.so devel/lib/

Installation Instructions - Ubuntu 18.04 with ROS Melodic and Gazebo 9

To use the code developed and stored in this repository some preliminary actions are needed. They are listed below.

1. Install and initialize ROS Melodic desktop full, additional ROS packages, catkin-tools, and wstool:

$ sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list'
$ sudo apt-key adv --keyserver 'hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80' --recv-key C1CF6E31E6BADE8868B172B4F42ED6FBAB17C654
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install ros-melodic-desktop-full ros-melodic-joy ros-melodic-octomap-ros
$ sudo apt install python-wstool python-catkin-tools protobuf-compiler libgoogle-glog-dev
$ sudo apt install ros-melodic-control-toolbox ros-melodic-octomap-mapping ros-melodic-mavlink
$ sudo rosdep init
$ rosdep update
$ echo "source /opt/ros/melodic/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
$ source ~/.bashrc
$ sudo apt install python-rosinstall python-rosinstall-generator build-essential

2. If you don't have ROS workspace yet you can do so by

$ mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src
$ cd ~/catkin_ws/src
$ catkin_init_workspace  # initialize your catkin workspace
$ cd ~/catkin_ws/
$ catkin init
$ cd ~/catkin_ws/src
$ git clone -b dev/ros-melodic https://github.com/gsilano/CrazyS.git
$ git clone -b med18_gazebo9 https://github.com/gsilano/mav_comm.git
$ cd ~/catkin_ws

3. Build your workspace with python_catkin_tools (therefore you need python_catkin_tools)

$ rosdep install --from-paths src -i
$ sudo apt install ros-melodic-rqt-rotors ros-melodic-rotors-comm ros-melodic-rotors-description
$ sudo apt install ros-melodic-mav-msgs ros-melodic-rotors-control
$ sudo apt install ros-melodic-rotors-gazebo ros-melodic-rotors-evaluation
$ sudo apt install ros-melodic-rotors-joy-interface ros-melodic-rotors-hil-interface
$ sudo apt install ros-melodic-rotors-gazebo-plugins ros-melodic-mav-planning-msgs
$ rosdep update
$ catkin build

4. Add sourcing to your .bashrc file

$ echo "source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
$ source ~/.bashrc

5. Update the pre-installed Gazebo version. This fixes the issue with the error in REST request for accessing api.ignition.org

$ sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo/ubuntu-stable `lsb_release -cs` main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gazebo-stable.list'
$ wget http://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo.key -O - | sudo apt-key add -
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install gazebo9 gazebo9-* ros-melodic-gazebo-*
$ sudo apt upgrade

In the event that the simulation does not start, the problem may be related to Gazebo and missing packages. Therefore, run the following commands. More details are reported in #25.

$ sudo apt-get remove ros-melodic-gazebo* gazebo*