deepRacerSim - Simulation for an AWS deepRacer car

Installation

With Docker

You might need to run xhost +local:root on the host machine to allow the Docker container to access the X11 server.

# change dir to this repository
cd deepRacerSim

# Build docker image with
docker build -f deepRacerSim.Dockerfile -t deep-simulator .

With Ubuntu 20.04 or Windows

0. Windows users
   • You will need to be on Windows 11 Build 22000 or later.
   • Install driver for vGPU to run Linux GUI apps
     • Intel GPU driver for WSL
     • AMD GPU driver for WSL
     • NVIDIA GPU driver for WSL
   • Install WSL2. Open Microsoft Store and install Ubuntu 20.04.
   • Run Ubuntu 20.04
1. Install ROS1 Noetic
2. Get this repository

# Install Git and Python3 if not installed
apt-get update && apt-get install -y git python3-pip

# Download this repository
git clone https://github.com/CatUnderTheLeaf/deepRacerSim.git

# Change working directory, replace with appropriate path
cd /path/to/deepRacerSim/deep_ws

# Source ROS1 if it is not in ~/.bashrc
# or just add it to ~/.bashrc with
# echo "source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash

# Install package dependencies
rosdep fix-permissions
rosdep update
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src --rosdistro noetic

# Build packages
catkin_make -DPYTHON_EXECUTABLE=/usr/bin/python3

# export path variables for Gazebo, replace with appropriate path
export GAZEBO_MODEL_PATH=$GAZEBO_MODEL_PATH:/path/to/deepRacerSim/deep_ws/src/simulation/tracks/
export GAZEBO_RESOURCE_PATH=$GAZEBO_RESOURCE_PATH:/path/to/deepRacerSim/deep_ws/src/simulation/

# also add it to ~/.bashrc not to export it all the time
echo "export GAZEBO_MODEL_PATH=$GAZEBO_MODEL_PATH:/path/to/deepRacerSim/deep_ws/src/simulation/tracks/" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "export GAZEBO_RESOURCE_PATH=$GAZEBO_RESOURCE_PATH:/path/to/deepRacerSim/deep_ws/src/simulation/" >> ~/.bashrc

Simulation

Launch simulation

cd /path/to/deepRacerSim/deep_ws

# ---- if with Docker ----

# launch a Docker container
./launch_docker.sh 

# ---- else ----

source devel/setup.bash

# export GAZEBO_MODEL_PATH and GAZEBO_RESOURCE_PATH from installation if they are not in ~/.bashrc

# ---- endif ----

# launch simulation
# there will be 1-2 gazebo model errors - it is ok,
# Gazebo just doesn't like .git files and stacked folders
roslaunch simulation simulation.launch

Control the car

# in another terminal
cd /path/to/deepRacerSim/deep_ws

# ---- if with Docker ----

# launch a Docker container
./launch_docker.sh 

# ---- else ----

source devel/setup.bash

# ---- endif ----

# launch keyboard teleoperation
roslaunch teleop_ackermann key_teleop.launch

# or launch joy teleoperation
roslaunch teleop_ackermann joy_teleop.launch

View from the camera

The car camera images are being published to the /camera/zed/rgb/image_rect_color topic.

You can view the camera feed by using the rqt_image_view, just run:

$ rqt_image_view

A GUI will appear, and you can select the /camera/zed/rgb/image_rect_color topic from the dropdown menu to view the camera feed.

Alternatively, you can use image_view with the following command:

$ rosrun image_view image_view image:=/camera/zed/rgb/image_rect_color

This will open a window displaying the live feed from the camera attached to your ROS agent in the Gazebo simulation.