Virtual Reality Robotic Workspace (ROS-Side Package)

Overview

This repository contains the ROS-side package to communicate and control a simulated or real (e.g., UR5e) robot through a Unity UI for the virtual reality robotic workspace software project.

Citation

If you find this project useful, then please consider citing our work.

@inproceedings{tram2023intuitive,
  title={Intuitive Robot Integration via Virtual Reality Workspaces},
  author={Tram, Minh Q. and Cloud, Joseph M. and Beksi, William J},
  booktitle={Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
  pages={11654--11660},
  year={2023}
}

Quick Start

1. Clone this repository and cd into it:

user@DESKTOP:~$ git clone https://github.com/robotic-vision-lab/VRRW-ROS.git
user@DESKTOP:~$ cd VRRW-ROS 

2. Build or pull the Docker image:

user@DESKTOP:~$ docker pull mqt0029/robosim:noetic

3. Run the Docker container:

A convenient script is provided to run the Docker container. The script will do the following:

• Create a container if it does not exist.
• If the container exists, then it will start the container and attach to it.
• Mount the catkin_ws directory to the container.
• Expose sufficient ports and devices for rendering and ROS communication.

A subsequent re-run of the script will just attach to the existing container.

user@DESKTOP:~$ ./run_container.sh

Several convenient aliases have also been defined in the container. They will be listed when a user attaches to the container.

user@DESKTOP:~$ ./run_container.sh
non-network local connections being added to access control list
predefined aliases: src_ros, run_rosdep, run_catkin, rebuild_catkin, kill_gazebo, kill_rviz

root ~/catkin_ws
>

4. Install the dependencies and build the catkin workspace:

root ~/catkin_ws
> run_rosdep

[...]

root ~/catkin_ws
> run_catkin

[...]

root ~/catkin_ws
> src_ros

🗒️ In order for autocomplete to find all ROS commands and packages, for every new terminal or package rebuild you must run src_ros to source the ROS environment.

5. Run the simulation or real robot control backend:

root ~/catkin_ws
> roslaunch rvl_unity_communicator start_backend.launch

or

root ~/catkin_ws
> roslaunch rvl_unity_communicator start_real_robot.launch

🗒️ Remember to modify the start_real_robot.launch file to match your robot's and control computer's IP addresses.

6. Start the Unity-side application package:

Refer to the VRRW-Unity repository for more information.

Troubleshooting

In many cases, the most common issues are the following:

1. Either the ROS-side, Unity-side, or physical robot (if applicable), does not have proper permissions to communicate through the LAN. To ensure that all devices are able to communicate with each other, a simple ping test may suffice:

user@DESKTOP:~$ ping <IP_ADDRESS>

Raw IP address i.e. 192.168.___.___ is preferred over hostname i.e. localhost or robot.local, however, we have not experienced any issues with the hostname.

2. On the Unity-side application, the ROS configuration is incorrect. Ensure that the ROS IP Adress under Robotics > ROS Settings is set to the IP address of the ROS-side computer where this package is running.

License