Hello everyone,
I want to announce the open source release of sdf_contact_estimation, a ROS1 noetic library for the fast and accurate pose prediction of mobile ground robots in rough terrain (also referred to as robot settling or robot-terrain interaction). A demo is available.
With a runtime of about 0.5 ms per predicted pose, this approach is much faster than a traditional physics simulation and suitable for online planning applications. Voxblox is used as the environment model. Possible use-cases are:
- Automatic flipper control
- Path planning
- Tip-over prevention
This software has been used by Team Hector in the RoboCup Rescue League for whole-body planning with a tracked robot with actuated flippers. That software will be part of a future release.
License: MIT
I am looking forward to your feedback.
Best wishes,
Martin Oehler