bml_vrep

Code for running vrep simulations of Biomimetic Millisystems Lab robots with ROS

Setup/Demo for v-rep 3.3.2

• Install v-rep 3.3.2 rev3
• Install catkin tools
• apt-get install ros-indigo-joy (if not already installed)
• export environment variable VREP_ROOT with the full path to the vrep dir, and export PATH=$PATH:VREP\ROOT to your bashrc
• Copy the coop_slam folder from the Dropbox into VREP_ROOT
• replace VREP_ROOT/programming/ros_packages/v_repExtRosInterface with repo at github.com/biomimetics/v_repExtRosInterface.git
• make a catkin workspace
• have this repo and a symbolic link to the vrep/programming/ros_packages folder in the src directory of the catkin workspace
• run catkin build (not catkin_make) from workspace root
• symbolic link from workspace/devel/lib/libv_repExtRosInterface.so in VREP_ROOT
• In VREP_ROOT/programming/v_repExtRemoteApi add -DNON_MATLAB_PARSING -DMAX_EXT_API_CONNECTIONS=255 to makefile CFLAGS variable. Replace all spaces on indented lines with single tabs.
• run make from VREP_ROOT/programming/v_repExtRemoteApi (this creates a new libv_repExtRemoteApi.so in the lib directory)
• make symbolic link to new libv_repExtRemoteApi.so in VREP_ROOT (delete or rename the original)
• make symbolic link to new libv_repExtRemoteApi.so in bml_vrep/src named remoteApi.so
• run roscore
• run vrep.sh
• roslaunch bml_vrep vrep_interface.launch

Setup/Demo for v-rep 3.2.2

• Install v-rep 3.2.2
• Install packages ros-indigo-ar-track-alvar, ros-indigo-keyboard, ros-indigo-teleop-twist-keyboard
• Add environment variable VREP_ROOT_DIR to bashrc that points to v-rep isntall directory
• Add VREP_ROOT_DIR to path
• Put ar_tag.ttt in VREP_ROOT_DIR/scenes and bubble_rob_laser.ttm in VREP_ROOT_DIR/models/robots/mobile
• Create ROS workspace and add this repo, as well as a symbolic link to the full path to VREP_ROOT_DIR/programming/ros_packages to the worspace src directory
• Create a symbolic link to VREP_ROOT_DIR/programming/ros_packages/ros_bubble_rob/include/v_repConst.h in this repo's include directory
• Create a symbolic link to VREP_ROOT_DIR/vrep.sh in this repo's src directory
• roslaunch bml_vrep demo.launch
• (in a separate terminal for each robot, replace n with robot number) roslaunch bml_vrep keyboard_input.launch robot=robot_n. You'll probably want to lower the speed to prevent the robots from falling over.
• To quit, find the keyboard input window (should have a keyboard icon in the taskbar) and enter q in it before ctrl-c killing everything else