Mobile robot object follower using camera and lidar

A mobile robot modelled in Gazebo environment. Object detection using camera and lidar which is visualized using Rviz. A demo of this project is shown below.

world and models

Robot and object	World	Rvix visualization

Nodes / Topics

Overview

Created two ROS packages inside your catkin_ws/src: the drive_bot and the ball_chaser. Here are the steps to design the robot, house it inside your world, and program it to chase white-colored balls:

drive_bot:

Create a my_robot ROS package to hold your robot, the white ball, and the world.
Design a differential drive robot with the Unified Robot Description Format. Add two sensors to your robot: a lidar and a camera. Add Gazebo plugins for your robot’s differential drive, lidar, and camera. The robot you design should be significantly different from the one presented in the project lesson. Implement significant changes such as adjusting the color, wheel radius, and chassis dimensions. Or completely redesign the robot model! After all you want to impress your future employers :-D
House your robot inside the world you built in the Build My World project.
Add a white-colored ball to your Gazebo world and save a new copy of this world.
The world.launch file should launch your world with the white-colored ball and your robot.

ball_chaser:

Create a ball_chaser ROS package to hold your C++ nodes.
Write a drive_bot C++ node that will provide a ball_chaser/command_robot service to drive the robot by controlling its linear x and angular z velocities. The service should publish to the wheel joints and return back the requested velocities.
Write a process_image C++ node that reads your robot’s camera image, analyzes it to determine the presence and position of a white ball. If a white ball exists in the image, your node should request a service via a client to drive the robot towards it.
The ball_chaser.launch should run both the drive_bot and the process_image nodes.

Prerequisites/Dependencies

Gazebo >= 7.0
ROS Kinetic
make >= 4.1(mac, linux), 3.81(Windows)
- Linux: make is installed by default on most Linux distros
- Mac: install Xcode command line tools to get make
- Windows: Click here for installation instructions
gcc/g++ >= 5.4
- Linux: gcc / g++ is installed by default on most Linux distros
- Mac: same deal as make - [install Xcode command line tools]((https://developer.apple.com/xcode/features/)
- Windows: recommend using MinGW

Setup Instructionfor prerequisite

Install Gazebo and ROS on Linux.
Install sudo apt-get install ros-${ROS_DISTRO}-gazebo-ros-pkgs (If you are using gazebo11 it should be sudo apt-get install ros-${ROS_DISTRO}-gazebo11-ros-pkgs)
Cmake and gcc/g++
Build and run your code.

Project Description

Directory Structure

.Project                # Go Chase It Project
├── my_robot                       # my_robot package
│   ├── launch                     # launch folder for launch files
│   │   ├── robot_description.launch
│   │   ├── world.launch
│   ├── meshes                     # meshes folder for sensors
│   │   ├── hokuyo.dae
│   ├── urdf                       # urdf folder for xarco files
│   │   ├── my_robot.gazebo
│   │   ├── my_robot.xacro
│   ├── world                      # world folder for world files
│   │   ├── UdacityOffice.world
│   ├── CMakeLists.txt             # compiler instructions
│   ├── package.xml                # package info
├── ball_chaser                    # ball_chaser package
│   ├── launch                     # launch folder for launch files
│   │   ├── ball_chaser.launch
│   ├── src                        # source folder for C++ scripts
│   │   ├── drive_bot.cpp
│   │   ├── process_images.cpp
│   ├── srv                        # service folder for ROS services
│   │   ├── DriveToTarget.srv
│   ├── CMakeLists.txt             # compiler instructions
│   ├── package.xml                # package info

Build and Launch

Clone and initialize project with a catkin workspace

$ mkdir catkin_ws && cd catkin_ws
$ git clone https://github.com/dipinknair/Object_follower_robot_using_camera.git
$ mv Object_follower_robot_using_camera src
$ cd src && catkin_init_workspace

Move back to catkin_ws\ and build

$ cd ..
$ catkin_make

Launch the world

$ source devel/setup.bash
$ roslaunch my_robot world.launch

Open another terminal (Ctrl+Shift+T), and launch the ball_chaser package

$ source devel/setup.bash
$ roslaunch ball_chaser ball_chaser.launch

Play around! Pick up the white ball and place in front of the mobile robot. The robot will follow the ball. Footer

dipinknair / Object_follower_robot_using_camera