We are excited to announce that we have created three new simulation environments for the Gazebo 3D robotics simulator. These new simulation worlds were designed by our very own software team and were the brainchild of David Niewinski (you may have seen Dave in one of our robot unboxing and getting started videos on YouTube). Each world comes equipped with a set of pre-made terrains which include structures and assets allowing users to program and test Jackal UGV, Husky UGV, Warthog UGV or Ridgeback. These new worlds include;
- Agriculture world – an outdoor navigation challenge for farms and solar fields
- Industrial inspection world – oil and gas, mining and civil engineering infrastructure for continued inspection tasks
- Indoor structure world – construction site with both finished and in-construction office building
What’s great about using the simulation environments is that the control scheme and sensor processing on the simulation robots is the same as the actual robots, meaning that any program run on the robots can also be run on the simulator and vice versa. These simulations are all free to download and can be found here.
Outdoor Agricultural World Simulation
Supported platforms: Jackal, Husky, Warthog
This is a large, open outdoor world for Gazebo that has a barn, a field and a solar array. This simulation is aimed to help researchers develop autonomy solutions for both “area coverage” and navigation between structures and projects like solar panels and crops. Primarily testing autonomy using GPS / GNSS or 2D LiDAR sensor systems.
Industrial Inspection World Simulation
Supported platforms: Jackal, Husky, Warthog
This simulation world is a large, open outdoor industrial environment which aims to provide users with a single world which has elements and assets from the oil and gas, mining, civil engineering and energy industries. Assets include: solar panels, a bridge, a pipeline (oil or gas) and a mini mine tunnel. This world is great for testing autonomy using GPS / GNSS with 3D LiDAR sensor systems and/or teleoperation.
Indoor Structure World Simulation
Supported platforms: Jackal, Husky, Ridgeback
This simulation is aimed to provide users with a single world which has elements and assets from the indoor navigation challenges, such as an office environment and construction site. Assets include walls, windows, rooms, tables, chairs, door ways, sand bags, rubble, wooden frames, and more. This world is great for testing 2D or 2.5D autonomy using LiDARs and depth sensors and/or indoor teleoperations.
If you have tried out our simulations and have feedback for us, or you have other ideas for sims, please let us know! You can leave feedback either by commenting on the GitHub repository or via our support team at support@clearpathrobotics.com.
To access the simulation environments click here.
To get started with ROS and simulating our robots in Gazebo, check out our extensive knowledge base and ROS tutorials.