Navigation and mapping

Introduction

RTABMap (standing for Real-Time Appearance-Based Mapping) is a powerful tool to efficiently map an environment, as well as navigating inside it. For further details, please check the References section of this wiki.

In order to make the autonomous navigation working properly, various parameters are influent, and are described here. Also, the orginal move_base for the Ridgeback base has been adjusted, to get better results. It is still possible to better the platform behavior by slightly tuning the set of parameters listed here.

Main parameters

move_base

Relevant files

• ridgeback_navigation/params/base_local_planner_params.yaml
• ridgeback_navigation/params/costmap_common_params.yaml
• ridgeback_navigation/params/move_base_params.yaml
• ridgeback_navigation/launch/include/move_base.launch

Comments

• Robot configuration parameters (max. acceleration, velocity, holonomic mode...)
• Edit goal tolerance
• sim_time can be an influent parameter
• Trajectory scoring parameters can be slightly tuned to obtain the desired behavior (but only experience can help you choosing these parameters)

Mapping

Relevant files

• rtabmap/rtabmap_ros/launch/ridgeback_multi_mapping.launch

Comments

• Inside RTABMap parameters section, check comments on parameters to tune.
• Check database_path if you want to create a new map (follow the same naming convention RPL_multi_DDMMYY_HHMM.db).
• Hardware-syncing for the 3 cameras should be enabled here.

Navigation

Relevant files

• rtabmap/rtabmap_ros/launch/ridgeback_multi_mapping.launch

Comments

• Inside RTABMap parameters section, check comments on parameters to tune.
  • The main parameter to tune here is Vis/MinInliers, as it is the main condition to ensure a great localization for the robot.
  • If the robot's behavior is jumpy, try to reduce the Icp/MaxTranslation parameter
• Check database_path to use the map you want.
• Hardware-syncing for the 3 cameras should be enabled here.

How-to launch...

Mapping

After having launch everything from steps Terminal 1 to 4 (see Launch Demo section), run the following command from a new terminal:

roslaunch roslaunch rtabmap_ros ridgeback_multi_mapping.launch

For a RViz visual output, open rviz and load the ridgeback_navigation.rviz configuration

Navigation

After having launch everything from steps Terminal 1 to 4 (see Launch Demo section), run the following command from a new terminal:

roslaunch roslaunch rtabmap_ros ridgeback_multi_navigation.launch

For a RViz visual output, open rviz and load the ridgeback_navigation.rviz configuration

References

• RTABMap Official website: http://introlab.github.io/rtabmap/
• RTABMap ROS: http://wiki.ros.org/rtabmap
• RTABMap SPLAM Publication: https://introlab.3it.usherbrooke.ca/mediawiki-introlab/images/e/eb/Labbe14-IROS.pdf