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Modified version of ardrone_autonomy needed for tum_ardrone?

asked 2015-06-29 11:30:47 -0500

zsaigol gravatar image

The installation instructions for tum_ardrone say a modified version of ardrone_autonomy is needed, and this can be installed from https://github.com/tum-vision/ardrone... . However, this is a rosbuild package, and therefore the (catkinized) current tum_ardrone package cannot depend on it (see http://wiki.ros.org/catkin/migrating_... ).

What was changed for this modified version? Should I:

  1. Use the Ubuntu package for ardrone_autonomy (I'm on Hydro)
  2. Install ardrone_autonomy from its GitHub repo
  3. Try to Catkinize the modified code...

I'm using Hydro on Ubuntu 12.04, but I suspect the same issue will apply to more up-to-date distros.

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answered 2015-06-29 17:51:00 -0500

Mani gravatar image

updated 2015-06-30 00:27:14 -0500

Unfortunately the changes made to tum-vision/ardrone_autonomy is not in the form of a github fork, so it is not possible to track changes with respect to the original repo easily.

I manually performed a diff between the two (tum-vision/ardrone_autonomy is based on the Fuerte branch of AutonomyLab/ardrone_autonomy). Here is the diff between tum-vision/ardrone_autonomy@be96c3 and AutonomyLab/ardrone_autonomy@Fuerte. The diff can be summarized as follows: (You can safely ignore changes in autoconf.h and README).

  1. tum-vision's version includes a new set of calibration files for the cameras. Those are probably better than the original files shipped with the driver. The way the fork reads these files are different. They are being loaded from a custom location.

  2. tum-vision's version sets the value of realtime_navdata and realtime_video to true by default.

  3. tum-vision's version sets new default values for some of ardrone's control parameters.

Based on these observations, it is possible to use the latest version of ardrone_autonomy (1.4) instead of this fork in catkin based ROS releases. I would suggest that you apply changes in (2) and (3) to your launch file (which is quite straightforward). For (1), you can use the files provided by tum-vision's package and copy them to ~/.ros/camera_info folder as described here. A better way to handle this might be to implement custom calibration files feature, also suggested here.

If this works out fine for you, you can contribute your launch file and maybe your HOWTO to ardrone_autonomy package. I will be more than happy to merge them in. In addition, you can also contribute back to tum_ardone package by updating its documentation.

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Thanks Mani, that is very helpful. I'll let you know how I get on.

zsaigol gravatar image zsaigol  ( 2015-06-30 05:35:03 -0500 )edit

@zsaigol Did you have a chance to test these?

Mani gravatar image Mani  ( 2016-03-30 15:04:12 -0500 )edit

@Mani, sorry I didn't. First project requirements made using ardrone_autonomy a lower priority, and then the whole project ended.

zsaigol gravatar image zsaigol  ( 2016-04-01 03:01:13 -0500 )edit

@zsaigol No problem. Thank you for providing the update.

Mani gravatar image Mani  ( 2016-04-06 11:09:30 -0500 )edit

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Asked: 2015-06-29 11:30:47 -0500

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Last updated: Jun 30 '15