Example 13

In this example, we will be utilizing the move_base ROS node, a component of the ROS navigation stack to send base goals to the Stretch robot.

Build a map

First, begin by building a map of the space the robot will be navigating in. If you need a refresher on how to do this, then check out the Navigation Stack tutorial.

Getting Started

Next, with your created map, we can navigate the robot around the mapped space. Run:

roslaunch stretch_navigation navigation.launch map_yaml:=${HELLO_FLEET_PATH}/maps/<map_name>.yaml

Where ${HELLO_FLEET_PATH} is the path of the <map_name>.yaml file.

IMPORTANT NOTE: It's likely that the robot's location in the map does not match the robot's location in the real space. In the top bar of Rviz, use 2D Pose Estimate to lay an arrow down roughly where the robot is located in the real space. Below is a gif for reference.

Now we are going to use a node to send a a move base goal half a meter in front of the map's origin. run the following command to execute the navigation.py node.

# Terminal 2
cd catkin_ws/src/stretch_tutorials/src/
python navigation.py

The Code

#!/usr/bin/env python

import rospy
import actionlib
import sys
from move_base_msgs.msg import MoveBaseAction, MoveBaseGoal
from geometry_msgs.msg import Quaternion
from tf import transformations

class StretchNavigation:
    """
    A simple encapsulation of the navigation stack for a Stretch robot.
    """
    def __init__(self):
        """
        Create an instance of the simple navigation interface.
        :param self: The self reference.
        """
        self.client = actionlib.SimpleActionClient('move_base', MoveBaseAction)
        self.client.wait_for_server()
        rospy.loginfo('{0}: Made contact with move_base server'.format(self.__class__.__name__))

        self.goal = MoveBaseGoal()
        self.goal.target_pose.header.frame_id = 'map'
        self.goal.target_pose.header.stamp = rospy.Time()

        self.goal.target_pose.pose.position.x = 0.0
        self.goal.target_pose.pose.position.y = 0.0
        self.goal.target_pose.pose.position.z = 0.0
        self.goal.target_pose.pose.orientation.x = 0.0
        self.goal.target_pose.pose.orientation.y = 0.0
        self.goal.target_pose.pose.orientation.z = 0.0
        self.goal.target_pose.pose.orientation.w = 1.0

    def get_quaternion(self,theta):
        """
        A function to build Quaternians from Euler angles. Since the Stretch only
        rotates around z, we can zero out the other angles.
        :param theta: The angle (radians) the robot makes with the x-axis.
        """
        return Quaternion(*transformations.quaternion_from_euler(0.0, 0.0, theta))

    def go_to(self, x, y, theta):
        """
        Drive the robot to a particular pose on the map. The Stretch only needs
        (x, y) coordinates and a heading.
        :param x: x coordinate in the map frame.
        :param y: y coordinate in the map frame.
        :param theta: heading (angle with the x-axis in the map frame)
        """
        rospy.loginfo('{0}: Heading for ({1}, {2}) at {3} radians'.format(self.__class__.__name__,
        x, y, theta))

        self.goal.target_pose.pose.position.x = x
        self.goal.target_pose.pose.position.y = y
        self.goal.target_pose.pose.orientation = self.get_quaternion(theta)

        self.client.send_goal(self.goal, done_cb=self.done_callback)
        self.client.wait_for_result()

    def done_callback(self, status, result):
        """
        The done_callback function will be called when the joint action is complete.
        :param self: The self reference.
        :param status: status attribute from MoveBaseActionResult message.
        :param result: result attribute from MoveBaseActionResult message.
        """
        if status == actionlib.GoalStatus.SUCCEEDED:
            rospy.loginfo('{0}: SUCCEEDED in reaching the goal.'.format(self.__class__.__name__))
        else:
            rospy.loginfo('{0}: FAILED in reaching the goal.'.format(self.__class__.__name__))

if __name__ == '__main__':
    rospy.init_node('navigation', argv=sys.argv)
    nav = StretchNavigation()
    nav.go_to(0.5, 0.0, 0.0)

The Code Explained

Now let's break the code down.

#!/usr/bin/env python

Every Python ROS Node will have this declaration at the top. The first line makes sure your script is executed as a Python script.

import rospy
import actionlib
import sys
from move_base_msgs.msg import MoveBaseAction, MoveBaseGoal
from geometry_msgs.msg import Quaternion
from tf import transformations

You need to import rospy if you are writing a ROS Node.

self.client = actionlib.SimpleActionClient('move_base', MoveBaseAction)
self.client.wait_for_server()
rospy.loginfo('{0}: Made contact with move_base server'.format(self.__class__.__name__))

Set up a client for the navigation action. On the Stretch, this is called move_base, and has type MoveBaseAction. Once we make the client, we wait for the server to be ready.

self.goal = MoveBaseGoal()
self.goal.target_pose.header.frame_id = 'map'
self.goal.target_pose.header.stamp = rospy.Time()

Make a goal for the action. Specify the coordinate frame that we want, in this instance the map. Then we set the time to be now.

self.goal.target_pose.pose.position.x = 0.0
self.goal.target_pose.pose.position.y = 0.0
self.goal.target_pose.pose.position.z = 0.0
self.goal.target_pose.pose.orientation.x = 0.0
self.goal.target_pose.pose.orientation.y = 0.0
self.goal.target_pose.pose.orientation.z = 0.0
self.goal.target_pose.pose.orientation.w = 1.0

Initialize a position in the coordinate frame.

def get_quaternion(self,theta):
    """
    A function to build Quaternians from Euler angles. Since the Stretch only
    rotates around z, we can zero out the other angles.
    :param theta: The angle (radians) the robot makes with the x-axis.
    """
    return Quaternion(*transformations.quaternion_from_euler(0.0, 0.0, theta))

A function that transforms Euler angles to quaternions and returns those values.

def go_to(self, x, y, theta, wait=False):
    """
    Drive the robot to a particular pose on the map. The Stretch only needs
    (x, y) coordinates and a heading.
    :param x: x coordinate in the map frame.
    :param y: y coordinate in the map frame.
    :param theta: heading (angle with the x-axis in the map frame)
    """
    rospy.loginfo('{0}: Heading for ({1}, {2}) at {3} radians'.format(self.__class__.__name__,
    x, y, theta))

The go_to() function takes in the 3 arguments, the x and y coordinates in the map frame, and the heading.

self.goal.target_pose.pose.position.x = x
self.goal.target_pose.pose.position.y = y
self.goal.target_pose.pose.orientation = self.get_quaternion(theta)

The MoveBaseGoal() data structure has three goal positions (in meters), along each of the axes. For Stretch, it will only pay attention to the x and y coordinates, since it can't move in the z direction.

self.client.send_goal(self.goal, done_cb=self.done_callback)
self.client.wait_for_result()

Send the goal and include the done_callback() function in one of the arguments in send_goal().

def done_callback(self, status, result):
    """
    The done_callback function will be called when the joint action is complete.
    :param self: The self reference.
    :param status: status attribute from MoveBaseActionResult message.
    :param result: result attribute from MoveBaseActionResult message.
    """
    if status == actionlib.GoalStatus.SUCCEEDED:
        rospy.loginfo('{0}: SUCCEEDED in reaching the goal.'.format(self.__class__.__name__))
    else:
        rospy.loginfo('{0}: FAILED in reaching the goal.'.format(self.__class__.__name__))

Conditional statement to print whether the goal status in the MoveBaseActionResult succeeded or failed.

rospy.init_node('navigation', argv=sys.argv)
nav = StretchNavigation()

The next line, rospy.init_node(NAME, ...), is very important as it tells rospy the name of your node -- until rospy has this information, it cannot start communicating with the ROS Master. NOTE: the name must be a base name, i.e. it cannot contain any slashes "/".

Declare the StretchNavigation object.

nav.go_to(0.5, 0.0, 0.0)

Send a move base goal half a meter in front of the map's origin.