FS Driverless 2019

This is a skeleton repository for the autonomous code of a driverless FS race car. This README contains some information to get you started.

The use of Ubuntu 18.04 and ROS melodic is assumed everywhere on this repository.

This repository contains a framework for the architecture of an autonomous FS race car, with basic dummy nodes to illustrate how to organise code. Some helpful tools are also included.

Repository organisation

The code is organised in several top level packages/directories. The top level should adhere to the following subdivision of functionality (a more detailed description can be found in the folders themselves):

fsd_common/ - top-level launchfiles, and other files used by many packages

perception/ - folder for perception packages

estimation/ - folder for estimation packages

control/ - folder for control packages

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Placement of ROS packages

ROS Packages should be added in one of the top level work-package folders. The top level work-package folders themselves should not be used to store ros package information. The directory tree for lidar would look like:

~/fsd_skeleton
  |__ environment.sh
  |__ update_dependencies.sh
  |__ src
      |__ 0_fsd_common
      |   |__ fsd_common_meta
      |   |   |__ missions
      |   |__ fsd_common_msgs
      |__ 1_perception
      |   |__ perception_meta
      |   |__ lidar_cone_detection
      |   |   |__ package.xml
      |   |   |__ CMakeLists.txt
      |   |   |__ ...
      |
      |__ 2_estimation
      |   |__ estimation_meta
      |   |__ velocity_estimator
      |
      |__ 3_control

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Aliases (useful commands)

Once running update_dependencies, some aliases for commands will be added. Restart the terminal and the following commands will be available:

• FSD_source: sources environment from anywhere
• FSD_cd: change directory to root directory of skeleton_repo
• FSD_build: clean and build project (catkin clean and catkin build)
• FSD_launch_acceleration: launch mission, e.g. acceleration, trackdrive, autox etc
• FSD_rviz_acceleration: launch RVIZ with custom config for mission, e.g. acceleration, trackdrive, autox etc
• FSD_ATS: run automated test

Look atfsd_aliases to see full list, or add more custom aliases.

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Setting up the Workspace

0 Install prerequisites:

Install a full version of ros melodic and rosdep: http://wiki.ros.org/melodic/Installation/Ubuntu
sudo apt install python-catkin-tools
sudo apt install checkinstall
sudo apt-get install ros-melodic-rqt-multiplot

1 Clone the repository:

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/Pitt-RAS/fsd_skeleton

2 Install dependencies

cd ~/fsd_skeleton
./update_dependencies.sh -f

3 Build workspace

cd ~/fsd_skeleton
catkin build

4 Source environment

Assuming you've run ./update_dependencies.sh succesfully and restarted the terminal.

FSD_source

Else,

cd ~/fsd_skeleton
source fsd_environment.sh

5 Test setup

roslaunch fssim_interface fssim.launch

in new terminal

roslaunch fsd_common_meta trackdrive.launch

You should see the car start moving after everything is loaded.

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Conventions

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ROS naming conventions

We use the naming conventions defined at http://wiki.ros.org/ROS/Patterns/Conventions

Work packages:

work_package, lowercase and _ as separator, e.g. lidar.

ROS packages:

workpackage_somename, lowercase and _ as separator, e.g. lidar_trimmer, as to make it clear what the package is used for.

ROS nodes

node_name, lowercase and _ as separator. Can be short.

ROS topics

topic_name, lowercase and _ as separator.

ROS messages

CamelCased.msg for message filenames. Message types are always CamelCase, whereas message fields are lowercase and _ as separator, e.g.

MyMessage.msg:
Header header
Float64 my_float
geometry_msgs/Point my_point

Style guides

ROS C++:

Google Style (http://wiki.ros.org/CppStyleGuide)

• Files: under_scored, exception for .msg files, CMakeLists.txt.
• Classes/types: CamelCase
• Functions/methods: camelCase
• Variables: under_scored and DESCRIPTIVE.
• Constants: ALL_CAPITALS.
• Global variables: AVOID except special cases. Rather have parameters defined in config.yaml.

ROS Python

PEP-8 style (http://wiki.ros.org/PyStyleGuide)

README files

Markdown syntax (https://github.com/adam-p/markdown-here/wiki/Markdown-Cheatsheet)

Future improvements

• Better dependency management example and documentation
• Jenkins setup
• RVIZ setup
• ...