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What is the appropriate nav config for autonomous frontier_exploration?

asked 2014-10-29 16:33:33 -0500

jordan gravatar image

I have a robot that can successfully localize, navigate and reach goals submitted to the move_base package within the ROS Navigation stack. It's using ROS Hydro with Ubuntu 12.04 running on dual-core 1.6 GHz Intel Atom netbook, AMCL and a static map (previously created using teleop/gmapping). Now I would like to use frontier_exploration to have the robot explore autonomously. Actually, I would like it to explore completely unknown space and use gmapping to create a new static map as it explores (not utilizing a previously generated map). I believe this is a supported use case for the frontier_exploration package. Could someone confirm that?

On reading the documentation, I see that there are two options:

  1. without global map
  2. with global map

Regarding the global map: is that a reference to the move_base global costmap, a gmapping map, or a static map on the map server, or other? My impression is it could be any of those (but it's not clear). Is it correct?

What is the purpose of frontier_exploration if you already have a global map? If someone would explain that, it would help my understanding. However, as already stated, exploring with a pre-built static global map is not my objective here.

In setting up navigation to work with frontier_exploration, I'm faced with the issue of how to configure the navigation stack itself. I think I want to use option #1 above (unless option #2 refers to a map created on-the-fly by gmapping?), which leads me to believe I do not want to load a global map in the navigation launch file. Therefore, I would omit the following (from the move_base node launch):

<rosparam file="$(find hexapod_2dnav)/costmap_common_params.yaml" command="load" ns="global_costmap" />
<rosparam file="$(find hexapod_2dnav)/global_costmap_params.yaml" command="load" />

Beyond that, for my above described use case, I should remove the launch of AMCL and substitute it with the launch of gmapping?

Is the above correct?

Thanks very much for any advice.

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Hi, i was wondering if you could get the frontier_exploration work for you? i got a tiny little problem with it.

sobot gravatar image sobot  ( 2015-05-07 14:08:35 -0500 )edit

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answered 2014-10-29 22:48:10 -0500

paulbovbel gravatar image

Option #2 DOES include creating a global map on the fly with gmapping. Sorry for the confusion, I'm going to have to think about how to reword that documentation to make everything clearer. In essence, global_map.launch is for when you have a /map topic, and no_global_map.launch is for when you don't.

Yes, you should omit AMCL and use gmapping. They both provide the very important /map->/odom transform.

global_map.launch should work relatively out of the box for you, just substitute the proper sensor and robot configuration, mirroring your move_base setup.

What is the purpose of frontier_exploration if you already have a global map

My original use case was actually to explore a known map and search for a person.

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Hi @paulbovbel sorry for directly bugging you here, i have an Issue with frontier_exploration package and pretty much read most of the available online resource. could you please check my Question here. Thanks so much!

sobot gravatar image sobot  ( 2015-05-07 13:06:45 -0500 )edit

I'm sorry but I don't understand by what you mean when you say no map topic?Explored data needs to be published on some topic right?

RS gravatar image RS  ( 2015-07-26 18:54:47 -0500 )edit

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Asked: 2014-10-29 16:33:33 -0500

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Last updated: Oct 29 '14