SubT Challenge Hello World Post 4: Navigation
Hi All,
It is my pleasure to announce our fourth tutorial in our “Hello World” tutorial series for the DARPA Subterranean Challenge. The previous posts showed you how to configure your virtual robotmap an underground environment, and detect and report artifacts. In our latest post, we build upon these modules to add a local navigation stack for our simulated robot. This tutorial shows in detail how to integrate move_base and the ROS Navigation Stack and how to modify move_base to address the differences between a 2D floor plan and a complex subterranean environment. With the navigation stack in place, you can use RViz to set navigation waypoints to move your robot through the underground worlds. Once you have navigation, you’re well on your way to a working robot solution.
While I have your attention, I would also like to point out a couple recent releases for the SubT Virtual Testbed. You can now build underground worlds and navigate around falling rocks.
DARPA has also released the first tranche of robot models from the Systems Competition. These were recently added to the SubT Tech Repo . The new models are faithful representations of physical robots used by the Systems Competition teams! Some of the models are based on high resolution photogrammetry scans from Urban Circuit, and the models match the robots’ sensor payloads. The current list of Systems Competition robots available in simulation includes:
- CERBERUS M100
- CERBERUS ANYMAL B
- MARBLE QAV500
- MARBLE HD2
- MARBLE Husky
- Robotika Kloubak
- Robotika Freyja
More Systems Competition robots will be released in the near future along with additional payloads. I am really excited by the release of these models and the blog post, as they represent a fantastic opportunity for the ROS community to build cutting edge software using simulations of some of the most advanced robots available for underground exploration. Whether you are a consummate or novice ROS developer, these tutorials can broaden your skills. Moreover, if you find yourself motivated to push your robot to further explore the cave worlds, you can still sign up to compete in the Cave Circuit event of the DARPA Subterranean Challenge for a number of cash prizes.
Relevant Links
Current Tutorials
- Tutorial 1: Hello World
- Tutorial 2: Docker & SLAM
- Tutorial 3: Robot Perception
- Tutorial 4: Robot Navigation
Official SubT Challenge Resources
- DARPA Subterranean Challenge website
- SubT Virtual Portal
- SubT Tech Repo
- SubT Virtual Testbed source code.
- Additional SubT Virtual Testbed tutorials
- The DARPA YouTube Channel is a great resource for coverage of the SubT Challenge events