Waypoint Navigation of Quadcopter in PX4-ROS

This repository provides a streamlined devcontainer to perform waypoint nagivation of quadcopters in ROS2, Gazebo and PX4.

Software Stack

• ROS2 Humble
• Gazebo Harmonic
• PX4
• QGroundControl

Trajectory of Quadrotor Navigation

Setup

1. Clone the Repository

First, clone the project:

git clone https://github.com/Srindot/assignment2_Introduction_To_UAV_Design.git

2. Setup Docker

Ensure Docker is installed and configured on your device.

3. Open the Project in VS Code

• Launch Visual Studio Code (VS Code) .
• Open the cloned project folder.

4. Packages Dependencies

1. Install xorg-xhost

For arch:

 sudo pacman -S xorg-xhost

For Ubuntu:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install x11-xserver-utils

2.Install Nvidia Container toolkit:

If your host system doesn't have a Nvidia Card, remove the instance of gpus in devcontainer and you can ignore the below instruction to download Nvidia Container Toolkit. (Follow the comments in the devcontainer file)

For Arch:

sudo pacman -S nvidia-container-toolkit

and restart the docker daemon

sudo systemctl restart docker

For Ubuntu: Set up the Repository

curl -fsSL https://nvidia.github.io/libnvidia-container/gpgkey | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/nvidia-container-toolkit-keyring.gpg \
  && curl -s -L https://nvidia.github.io/libnvidia-container/stable/deb/nvidia-container-toolkit.list | \
    sed 's#deb https://#deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/nvidia-container-toolkit-keyring.gpg] https://#g' | \
    sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nvidia-container-toolkit.list

Then install the nvidia-contianer-toolkit

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y nvidia-container-toolkit

After this restart the docker daemon:

sudo systemctl restart docker

5. Build the Container

• Press Ctrl + Shift + P to open the Command Palette .

  

• Search for "Dev Conatiners: Reopen in Container" and select it to start building the container and after a while it will ask for your platform(Linux, WSL, and Macos) choose accordingly.

This will take a long time, it will pull the image from the github container registry and to open it.

• After this, make sure to choose the terminal profile in vscode to be bash. You can do this in the command pallete in github, search for terminal profile and select bash.

6. Run Tasks Inside the Container

• Once inside the container, press Ctrl + Shift + P again.

  t

• Search for "Run Tasks" , then select and execute the following tasks :

Available Tasks

• Below are the tasks avaliable

  

1. MicroXRCEAgent : Connection to ROS2 and PX4
2. PX4 SITL : To start up PX4 with gazebo gui
3. QGroundControl : To launch QGroundControl
4. Sensor Combined Listener : To echo gyro readings and acceleration in all three axis
5. Offboard Control : To arm the vehicle and publish waypoint for quadcopter to track

Manual Installation (If you choose to run on terminal)

First pull the image: Open a terminal and run the following command

docker pull ghcr.io/srindot/rosgzpx4

This is going to take some time.

Create a container instance from the pulled image refer to this repo for instructions

To run the simulator follow below steps.

1. To launch MicroXRCEAgent: Navigate to a new terminal and run the below command to launch it

   MicroXRCEAgent udp4 -p 8888

3. To make PX4_sitl, open another terminal and navigate to PX4-Autopilot dir

   cd ~/PX4-Autopilot

Make the PX4_sitl and launch the vehicle gz_x500

   make px4_sitl gz_x500

3. To launch QGroundControl, Open another terminal and run the following command

   QGroudControl

4. open a new terminal and source ros2 and local_setup.bash in sensor combined workspace

   cd ~/ws_sensor_combined && source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash && source install/local_setup.bash

and run the below command to run the sensor combined listener

    ros2 launch px4_ros_com sensor_combined_listener.launch.py

5. To arm the vehicle and switch it to offoard mode, open a new temrinal source ros2 and local setup by runnig below the command

   cd ~/ws_offboard_control/src && cd .. && source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash && source install/local_setup.bash

Now run the offboard_control.py file present in the dir

   cd && python3 ~/workspace/offboard_control.py

To set Quadcopter Waypoints

To set the waypoint for the quadcopter to navigate, go to here and set the waypoints in the list.

Need Help? Raise an Issue!

If you encounter any problems or have questions, feel free to raise an issue.