Functionality

The configuration manager of the bot that receives the power consumption of a list of robot configurations and maintain the current configuration of the robot. When the configuration of the robot will change, it will reflect the change to power consumption by changing the power load of the robot battery plugin.

Support

This plugin is tested for ROS kinetic and Gazebo 7.8.1.

Build

Create the build directory:

mkdir ~/catkin_ws/src/brass_gazebo_config_manager/build
cd ~/catkin_ws/src/brass_gazebo_config_manager/build

Make sure you have sourced ROS before compiling the code:

source /opt/ros/<DISTRO>/setup.bash

Compile the code:

cmake ../
make    

Compiling will result in a shared library, ~/catkin_ws/src/brass_gazebo_config_manager/build/devel/lib/libconfig_manager.so, that can be inserted in a Gazebo simulation.

Lastly, add your library path to the GAZEBO_PLUGIN_PATH:

export GAZEBO_PLUGIN_PATH=${GAZEBO_PLUGIN_PATH}:~/catkin_ws/src/brass_gazebo_config_manager/build/devel/lib

Build by catkin

Build the plugin by going to the base of your work space and running catkin:

cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin_make

Installing the Plugin

cd ~/catkin_ws/src/brass_gazebo_config_manager/build
cmake ../
make
sudo make install

Usage

In the brass.world file, libconfig_manager.so is mentioned as a plugin. This implied that plugin is initialized and loaded when p2-cp1.world is opened in Gazebo. The xml code could be linked to any model in a new .world file.

<plugin filename="libconfig_manager.so" name="configuration_manager">
  <config_list_path>/cp1/config_list.json</config_list_path>
  <default_config>0</default_config>
  <ros_node>cp1_node</ros_node>
</plugin>

Run the Plugin

cd ~/catkin_ws/src/brass_gazebo_config_manager
gazebo test/worlds/p2-cp1.world --verbose

Exposed ROS services and topics

This Gazebo plugin expose several services that can be accessed via ROS:

/battery_monitor_client/battery_demo_model/get_config
/battery_monitor_client/battery_demo_model/set_config

Extending ROS Services

First create the service description file .srv and put it in the srv folder. Then declare it in the CMakeList.txt in the add_service_files() section. Also, add the following to the CMakeList.txt:

generate_messages(
DEPENDENCIES
std_msgs  # Or other packages containing msgs
)

For setting and getting configuration of the robot we use ROS services, so here we explain how to add new services to the code if needed:

cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin_make

The header files associated to the service can be found here:

cd ~/catkin_ws/devel/include/brass_gazebo_config_manager

The add the following header into the code that want to use the services:

#include "brass_gazebo_config_manager/SetLoad.h"

And then add the following declaration:

public: bool GetConfiguration(brass_gazebo_config_manager::GetConfig::Request &req,
                                brass_gazebo_config_manager::GetConfig::Response &res)

The service can then be advertised as follows:

this->rosNode->advertiseService(this->model->GetName() + "/api", &Plugin::ServiceName, this);

Maintainer

If you need a new feature to be added, please contact Pooyan Jamshidi