VRX

This page provides general info about developing for VRX, a simulated competition based on the real-life RobotX challenge.

MIL participates both in VRX and RobotX. Most code for this is hosted under NaviGator/.

Warning

Please go through the getting started guide before going through this tutorial.

Verifying that the VRX Environment is Functional / Playing Around in VRX

Launch VRX

In one panel, run:

$ roslaunch navigator_launch vrx.launch --screen

This will launch the NaviGator Code and the VRX code in the same container.

Run RVIZ

You can visualize things by running:

$ vrxviz

Give a move command

Give NaviGator a move command with:

$ nmove forward 5m

See the current odometry

Try streaming the content of a rostopic:

$ rostopic echo /odom

Quick testing

The official VRX system runs our code and the simulator in separated, isolated containers to prevent cheating. However, for normal development in can be helpful to simply run both in the same container. To do this, run:

$ roslaunch navigator_launch vrx.launch run_task:=True world:=<worldfile> --screen

Where <worldfile> is the name of a world under ~/catkin_ws/src/mil/NaviGator/simulation/VRX/vrx/vrx_gazebo/worlds.

For example, run:

$ roslaunch navigator_launch vrx.launch run_task:=True world:=stationkeeping_task --screen

to test out the station keeping scenario.

If you wish to see a world with multiple challenges at once (e.g. for testing lidar), try example_course.

The run_task:=True flag tells the mission server to immediately run the VRX mission. Set this to False if you wish to manually start the mission.

Preparing submission

The recommended workflow for submitting our code to vrx is:

Run the dev container:

$ ./scripts/run_development_container

1. Branch from the repo and edit whatever files you want to change with what ever text editor you want. Any changes you make to the files from your host machine will immediately show up in the container and when you re-run(for python changes)/ compile(for cpp changes) these changes will immediately take effect. Do the bulk of your development in this stage running mil and vrx code in the same container for fast turn around time in testing.

2. Once you are satisfied with running your code in the development container, you can move on to running your changes against the VRX server. This is how we will be evaluated by OSRF.

3. Make a Trial Container:

   1. Commit and push your changes to a git hub repository on a branch. ie: my_branch at https://github.com/ME/mil.git

   2. Navigate to the root of the repo:

   $ mil
   

       $ ./scripts/build_vrx_trial_container my_branch https://github.com/ME/mil.git
   
   If you pushed to the uf-mil github, run:
   

       $ ./scripts/build_vrx_trial_container my_branch
   
   .. note::
   
   Make sure when building your trial container, that the code actually compiles.
   

Run your container with a terminal for sanity check. Make sure your container actually does what you want when it starts up:

$ ./scripts/run_vrx_trial_container my_branch

Now you should have a trial container! Follow the instructions at https://bitbucket.org/osrf/vrx-docker/src/default/ to run this container against the vrx server.

How to Download and Replay logs from Phase 3 of VRX (2019)

To Download the Logs

$ ./NaviGator/simulation/VRX/vrx_logs/2019/download_logs.bash

To Play a Log

$ ./NaviGator/simulation/VRX/vrx_logs/play_log.bash <year> <task> <run>

i.e. to play the 2019 docking task run 0:

$ ./NaviGator/simulation/VRX/vrx_logs/play_log.bash 2019 dock 0

To Download the Videos:

$ ./NaviGator/simulation/VRX/vrx_logs/2019/download_videos.bash

To Play a Video:

$ mplayer NaviGator/simulation/VRX/vrx_logs/2019/vrx_2019_videos/<task><run>.mp4

i.e. to play the 2019 docking task run 1:

$ mplayer NaviGator/simulation/VRX/vrx_logs/2019/vrx_2019_videos/dock1.mp4

Warning

Not all tasks and runs have a video. Navigate to $MIL_REPO/NaviGator/simulation/VRX/vrx_logs/2019/vrx_2019_videos to see the available videos.