Feature/real time factor control

[pawellech1]

Types of PR

• New Features
• Upgrade of existing features
• Bugfix

Link to the issue

https://tier4.atlassian.net/browse/RJD-821
https://tier4.atlassian.net/browse/RJD-822

Description

Enabling using real_time_factor as the launch argument:

• Fixed usage of real_time_factor inside SimulationClock, which makes the clock work correctly when the real_time_factor is set as the launch argument
• Inside scenario_test_runner.launch.py both simple_sensor_simulator_node and openscenario_interpreter_node are now started with use_sim_time:=True.
• The value of use_sim_time parameter for concealer::AutowareUniverse created by EgoEntitySimulation is now based on the global use_sim_time parameter value.

real_time_factor value control during the simulation

• /real_time_factor topic subscriber is created inside traffic_simulator::API. It is used to control the value of real_time_factor during the simulation runtime.
• Inside SimulationClock passed time is now stored as a single double value representing seconds. Since the real_time_factor value might change during the simulation simple counting passed frames number would not work properly anymore.
• New updateStepTimeRequest in zeroMQ communication between traffic_simulator::API and SimpleSensorSimulator is created. The purpose of this request is to allow changing the value of ScenarioSimulator::step_time_ from the traffic_simulator::API when new real_time_factor value is received on the newly defined topic.

GUI plugin controlling the value of real_time_factor

• The RViz plugin, which uses the slider to control the real_time_factor value, was created.

How to test and review this PR.

To test this PR please use Autoware from this fork branch https://github.com/RobotecAI/autoware-1/tree/autoware-real-time-factor-stable.

The branch linked above uses fork of autoware_launch repository inside autoware.repos file. On this autoware_launch fork, changes to planning_simulator.launch.xml file (from this unmerged PR autowarefoundation/autoware_launch#746) are introduced. These changes are necessary for the changes from this real-time-factor-control PR to work properly. Using the repository linked above ensures building a stable version. Except for the need to checkout different repository and branch, the rest of the Autoware building steps remain unchanged.

This step is necessary since the versions of the repositories which Autoware depends on might differ in time, a simple checkout to the branch from the PR linked above might and probably will cause unexpected trouble.

Others

[piotr-zyskowski-rai]

Thank you for the implementation. I noticed several places for improvement. Please address the comments

[pawellech1]

@yamacir-kit thank you for your first review, I have implemented the changes you requested.

[hakuturu583]

I believe this is likely to include disruptive changes regarding integration with AWSIM.
To prevent accidental merges, we will temporarily set this to Request Changes.

[pawellech1]

@hakuturu583 I wanted to verify if this PR impairs the ss2 and AWSIM integration.

In order to do that I tried running sample_awsim.yaml scenario with the scenario_test_runner and AWSIM.

• I used the Autoware awsim-ss2-stable branch and the branch from this PR for SS2:

  • I was able to successfully run the first test from the sample_awsim.yaml, but running the second test was not successful.
  • During the second attempt the Autoware visualization in RViz was not visible. The RViz screen was completly black except for the steering wheel interface.

• I tried also running the same scenario without changes from this branch applied and the behavior was the same:

  • the first test was run successfully and the second one failed to run in the same way.

It seems for now that running sample_awsim.yaml scenario with scenario_test_runner and AWSIM is not working correctly neither on the ss2 version from awsim-ss2-stable simulator.repos file nor on the branch from this PR.

I will be trying to identify the root of this issue in order to run the scenario successfully.

[piotr-zyskowski-rai]

@hakuturu583

I've tested the code from the PR and I was able to reproduce the issue mentioned by @pawellech1. Updating the branch to the newest master solved the issue for me and I was able to run AWSIM with code from this PR successfully.

Regarding the potential breaking of the communication with AWSIM - the AWSIM code should be updated to fully support the functionality to change the step time in runtime. I prepared a PR to introduce this in AWSIM: tier4/AWSIM#259
However, the change from the PR above is not necessary, as long as the user does not change the real-time factor on runtime. It would probably be best to wait for PR in AWSIM to be merged. The change is not breaking, however, when using scenario_simulator_v2 and AWSIM connection the way it was used until now.

[hakuturu583]

I have checked the source code and feel that there are no problems left.
As soon as this matter is fixed, we will approve it.