Firstly, assuming you have already installed ROS Groovy and MORSE 1.x.x.

Then you need two additional packages p2os and exploration:

git clone https://github.com/allenh1/p2os.git
svn co https://svn.code.sf.net/p/bosch-ros-pkg/code/trunk/stacks/exploration

Finally, download the attachment (yz_morse_sim), decompress it and enter into the folder morse_sim.

Now, let’s start the simulation!

1. Launch roscore in a terminal window:

roscore

2. Launch MORSE simulator in a new terminal window:

morse run single_robot.py

3. Launch ROS nodes in a new terminal window (This step will also launch gmapping and rivz):

roslaunch single_robot.launch

4. Save the map if you want, in a new terminal window:

rosrun map_server map_saver

Done!

Firstly, assuming you have already installed ROS Groovy and Stage 3.x.x.

Then you need two additional packages p2os and exploration:

git clone https://github.com/allenh1/p2os.git
svn co https://svn.code.sf.net/p/bosch-ros-pkg/code/trunk/stacks/exploration

Finally, download the attachment (yz_stage_sim), decompress it and enter into the folder stage_sim.

Now, let’s start the simulation!

1. Launch roscore in a terminal window:

roscore

2. So, you have three options to implement the exploration: teleoperation, exploration and exploration with SLAM, in a new terminal window:

roslaunch teleop.launch (or explore.launch, or explore_slam.launch)

3. You can track the exploration progress by using rviz, in a new terminal window:

rosrun rviz rviz -d stage.rviz

4. If you want build a map by teleoperation, in a new terminal window:

rosrun gmapping slam_gmapping scan:=base_scan

5. Save the map, in a new terminal window:

rosrun map_server map_saver

Done!

Zhi YAN (Web Page) is a new postdoc in our team since september, 15th 2013. He will work 12 months on our CAIRE project. Today, Zhi presented us some of its work during its PhD.

Presentation title: Tasks and motion planning for multi-robot systems

Summary: This presentation focuses on the issue of multi-robot coordination from the standpoint of planning, which contains task planning and motion planning.
Two new approaches are proposed for the task planning. The first one is a decentralized approach based on trading rules. This approach is designed to simulate the relationship between buyers and sellers in a business system, to achieve dynamic task allocation by using a mechanism of unsolicited bid. The second approach is an heuristic one which is based on an empirical model. It is designed to assign the transportation task to individual robots by estimating the production rate of goods in a centralized system.
Two new approaches are proposed for the motion planning. Both are sampling-based approaches, designed to plan separate kinematic paths for multiple robots to minimize the issue of waiting situation including congestion, collision and deadlock, in an effective way in order to improve the system planning efficiency. All these proposed approaches have been tested and evaluated through simulation experiments.

Slides (in French)

Videos

Last may, Dr. Luc Fabresse presented at the ICRA 2013 workshop on Software Development and Integration in Robotics (SDIRIII) our first results in the CAIRE project. It’s about a first version of BoTest, a first version of a UnitTest framework based on the work done in eXtreme Programming, that we adapted to the context of robotics. We give a glimpse of experiments we are doing with our robots. The slides of the presentation are available below.

 

The CAR team  (http://car.mines-douai.fr) carries research at the frontier of Software Engineering and Robotics. We study software architectures, languages and tools for controlling individual robots. We have developed an expertise in reflective and dynamic languages, as well as component models, for a modular robotic software architectures. Besides, our research also addresses coordination and cooperation in robotic fleets. We mainly focus on communication models as well as emerging or predefined organizations for multi-agent robotic systems.

The post-doc position is part of the CAIRE project. The goal of the project is  to propose innovative solutions for the agile development of robotic software. The study will be validated by developing new robotic-based exploration and mapping solutions.

The candidate must have a PhD in Computer Science or Robotics, should demonstrate strong programming skills, and have research interests in at least one of the following areas:
- modularity and software composition
- programming languages design
- agile software development
- robotic middleware
- control architectures for robots
- multi-agent robotic systems

Important information:
-Workplace : Douai (Lille area), France
-Start: Between May and October 2013
-Duration : 18 months
-Salary approx. 2000 Euros.

To apply, please send your CV + references to : noury (DOT) bouraqadi (AT) mines-douai.fr

This end of the year comes with good news. Our research on robotic exploration and mapping received a two years funding from the Région Nord-Pas de Calais for a proposal entitled: CAIRE. This project that will be kicked off in 2013 involves two other partners: the RMoD team from INRIA Lille, and the Telice team from the IEMN lab of Lille.

The goal of the CAIRE project is to propose a methodology as well as an infrastructure for developing modular software to control robot for building maps of unknown buildings. One originality of our approach is that we fully rely on dynamic languages and more specifically on the Pharo reflective language. Dynamicity enables fast development and eases debugging. Besides, we rely on reflective and meta-level facilities for building tools and adapting the language to fit our needs.

Research we will be conducting in the CAIRE project will complement our previous work on cooperative exploration of unknown terrain using a fleet of robots. CAIRE is also related to our ongoing project RoboShop which aims at experimenting with robots in a shopping mall. In both projects we are using human size wheeled robots. They also share the same middleware: the de facto standard ROS, from the Open Source Robotics Foundation.