carla/carla_ros_bridge

Ros bridge for Carla simulator

This ros package aims at providing a simple ros bridge for carla simulator.

Features

• Cameras (depth, segmentation, rgb) support
• Add camera matrix
• Lidar sensor support
• Transform publications
• Manual control using ackermann msg
• Autopilot mode using rosparam
• Rosbag in the bridge (in order to avoid rosbag recoard -a small time errors)
• Handle ros dependencies
• Marker/bounding box messages for cars/pedestrian
• Add traffic light support
• Support dynamic change (restarting simulation using a topic/rosparam)

Setup

Create a catkin workspace and install carla_ros_bridge package

Create the catkin workspace:

mkdir -p ~/ros/catkin_ws_for_carla/src
cd ~/ros/catkin_ws_for_carla
source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.bash
catkin_make 
source ~/ros/catkin_ws_for_carla/devel/setup.bash

For more information about configuring a ros environment see http://wiki.ros.org/ROS/Tutorials/InstallingandConfiguringROSEnvironment

Install carla python client in your workspace

cd carla/PythonClient
pip2 install -e .  --user --upgrade   

Check the installation is successfull by trying to import carla from python:

python -c 'import carla;print("Success")'

You should see the Success message without any errors.

Install recent protobuf version [optional]

sudo apt-get remove python-protobuf
sudo pip2 install --upgrade protobuf

Add the carla_ros_bridge in the catkin workspace

Run the following command after replacing [PATH_TO_CARLA] with the actual path to carla directory on your machine:

ln -s [PATH_TO_CARLA]/carla_ros_bridge/ ~/ros/catkin_ws_for_carla/src/
source ~/ros/catkin_ws_for_carla/devel/setup.bash
rosdep update
rosdep install --from-paths ~/ros/catkin_ws_for_carla
cd ~/ros/catkin_ws_for_carla
catkin_make

Test your installation

If you use the builded binary (0.8.2):

 ./CarlaUE4  -carla-server -windowed -ResX=320 -ResY=240

Wait for the message:

Waiting for the client to connect...

Then run the tests

rostest carla_ros_bridge ros_bridge_client.test

you should see:

[carla_ros_bridge.rosunit-testTopics/test_publish][passed]

SUMMARY
 * RESULT: SUCCESS

Start the ros bridge

First run the simulator (see carla documentation: http://carla.readthedocs.io/en/latest/)

 ./CarlaUE4  -carla-server -windowed -ResX=320 -ResY=240

Wait for the message:

Waiting for the client to connect...

Then start the ros bridge:

source ~/ros/catkin_ws_for_carla/devel/setup.bash
roslaunch carla_ros_bridge client.launch

To start the ros bridge with rviz use:

roslaunch carla_ros_bridge client_with_rviz.launch

You can setup the wanted camera/sensors in config/settings.yaml.

Autopilot control

To enable autopilot control set the ros param carla_autopilot to True

rosparam set carla_autopilot True

Manual control

To enable manual control set the ros param carla_autopilot to False

rosparam set carla_autopilot False

Then you can send command to the car using the /ackermann_cmd topic.

Example of forward movements, speed in in meters/sec.

 rostopic pub /ackermann_cmd ackermann_msgs/AckermannDrive "{steering_angle: 0.0, steering_angle_velocity: 0.0, speed: 10, acceleration: 0.0,
  jerk: 0.0}" -r 10

Example of forward with steering

 rostopic pub /ackermann_cmd ackermann_msgs/AckermannDrive "{steering_angle: 5.41, steering_angle_velocity: 0.0, speed: 10, acceleration: 0.0,
  jerk: 0.0}" -r 10

Warning: the steering_angle is the driving angle (in radians) not the wheel angle, for now max wheel is set to 500 degrees.

Example for backward :

 rostopic pub /ackermann_cmd ackermann_msgs/AckermannDrive "{steering_angle: 0, steering_angle_velocity: 0.0, speed: -10, acceleration: 0.0,
  jerk: 0.0}" -r 10

ROSBAG recording

The carla_ros_bridge could also be used to record all published topics into a rosbag:

roslaunch carla_ros_bridge client_with_rviz.launch rosbag_fname:=/tmp/save_session.bag

This command will create a rosbag /tmp/save_session.bag

You can of course also use rosbag record to do the same, but using the ros_bridge to do the recording you have the guarentee that all the message are saved without small desynchronization that could occurs when using rosbag record in an other process.