mbplanner_ros

Install and run:

• Follow the instructions in mbplanner_ws for installation.
• Launch the planner:

roslaunch mbplanner mbplanner_m100_sim.launch

This will launch the planner with the rviz visualizer with the UI which can be used to trigger the planner.
Alternately, the planner can be triggered by calling the respective rosservices as follows:
Start planner: rosservice call /planner_control_interface/std_srvs/automatic_planning "{}"
Stop planner: rosservice call /planner_control_interface/std_srvs/stop

• We provide 4 different gazebo simulation environments which can be found in the planner_gazebo_sim package. The world file for the desired environment needs to be specified in the mbplanner_m100_sim.launch file here:

<arg name="world_file" default="$(find planner_gazebo_sim)/worlds/pittsburgh_mine.world"/>

We also support the environments published by DARPA for the Subterranean Challenge - Cave Circuit. In order to use those environments, the models and worlds need to be downloaded from another package: subt_cave_sim. To compile this package:

catkin build subt_cave_sim

And use the mbplanner/launch/mbplanner_m100_sim_cave.launch file:

roslaunch mbplanner mbplanner_m100_sim_cave.launch

Select the mapping framework

The planner supports two mapping frameworks: Voxblox and Octomap

Voxblox

By default, the planner is compiled with Voxblox. Voxblox can be used with two mapping modes, Euclidean Signed Distance Fields (ESDF) and Truncated Signed Distance Fields (TSDF). By default TSDF is used in which the distance (to the closest occupied voxel) of a voxel is truncated to a fixed value.
In order to switch to ESDF make the following changes:
In the file planner_common/include/planner_common/map_manager_voxblox_impl.h comment the following line:

#define TSDF

In the file mbplanner/launch/mbplanner_m100_sim.launch comment the following line:

<remap from="global_planner_node/tsdf_map_in" to="mbplanner_node/tsdf_map_out"/>

Uncomment the following line:

<!-- <remap from="global_planner_node/esdf_map_in" to="mbplanner_node/esdf_map_out"/> -->

Octomap

To compile with Octomap, set the flag USE_OCTOMAP to 1:

catkin build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DUSE_OCTOMAP=1 mbplanner

Also change the config to Octomap in the mbplanner/launch/mbplanner_m100_sim.launch file Replace:

<arg name="map_config_file" default="$(arg voxblox_config_file)"/>

With:

<arg name="map_config_file" default="$(arg octomap_config_file)"/>

Tutorial:

You could find a short tutorial on the plannning algorithm and the overall architecture on our website: Link

Reference:

If you use this work in your research, please cite the following publication.

@inproceedings{mbplanner2020,
  title={Motion Primitives-based Agile Exploration Path Planning for Aerial Robotics},
  author={Dharmadhikari, Mihir and Dang, Tung and Solanka, Lukas and Loje, Johannes and Nguyen, Huan and Khedekar, Nikhil and Alexis, Kostas},
  booktitle={2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
  year={2020},
  organization={IEEE}
}

Please contact us for any question:

• Mihir Dharmadhikari
• Tung Dang
• Kostas Alexis