Special Notice:

This package also depends on the package bimalka98/data_base, when loading and saving the PRM graph. Therefore clone that first to the catkin_ws/src folder.

Git rebase notice on April 19th, 2023

• This branch was rebased to the main branch for further development.
• Saving the PRM Graph, and loading it to the program in different runtime were successful.
• Add const bool debugMode = false; parameter in void loadPRMGraph() and void savePRMGraph() fucntions of traversability_prm.cpp file to surpress the unnecessay debug messages.
• Created separate launch files for mapping and localization.
  • offline_createMap.launch = runs lego-loam-bor-create-map node, save global 3D map, and save PRM graph
  • offline_localize.launch = runs lego-loam-bor-localize, and load PRM graph

How to Run

1. Mapping Stage

• 3D Global map building and saving
• PRM Graph building and saving

# -----Shell 1-----
# change dir to catkin workspace
$ catkin build
$ source devel/setup.bash 
$ roslaunch traversability_mapping offline_createMap.launch

# -----Shell 2-----
$ rosbag play *.bag --clock

2. Localization Stage: Mapping stage must have done before entering this stage

• 3D Global map loading
• PRM Graph loading

# -----Shell 1-----
# change dir to catkin workspace
$ catkin build
$ source devel/setup.bash 
$ roslaunch traversability_mapping offline_localize.launch


# -----Shell 2-----
$ rosbag play *.bag --clock

Note: This repository initialized from the https://github.com/TixiaoShan/traversability_mapping repository.

1. Traversability Mapping and Autonomous Navigation in Urban Area and Rough Terrain
2. Method: Bayesian Generalized Kernel Inference for Terrain Traversability Mapping

An image of the used robot is shown below:

Robot

System Architecture is shown below:

System Architecture

---

Original README starts here:

Traversability Mapping and Motion Planning

This repository contains code for a traversability mapping and motion plannign system for ROS compatible UGVs. The system takes in point cloud from a Velodyne VLP-16 Lidar and outputs a traversability map for autonomous navigation in real-time. A demonstration of the system can be found here -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pdBpeRGXmw

Get Started

• Install ROS.

• Install LeGO-LOAM.

• Install ROS Navigation stack. You can install it by running sudo apt-get install ros-indigo-navigation. If you are using other versions of ROS, replace indigo in the command with your ROS version.

Compile

You can use the following commands to download and compile the package.

cd ~/catkin_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/TixiaoShan/traversability_mapping.git
cd ..
catkin_make -j1

When you compile the code for the first time, you need to add "-j1" behind "catkin_make" for generating some message types. "-j1" is not needed for future compiling.

Run the System (in simulation)

1. Run the launch file:

roslaunch traversability_mapping offline.launch

2. Play existing bag files:

rosbag play *.bag --clock --topic /velodyne_points /imu/data

Notes: our system only needs /velodyne_points for input from bag files. However, a 3D SLAM method usually needs /imu/data.

Run the System (with real robot)

Run the launch file:

roslaunch traversability_mapping online.launch

Cite Traversability_Mapping

Thank you for citing our paper if you use any of this code:

@inproceedings{bayesian2018shan,
  title={Bayesian Generalized Kernel Inference for Terrain Traversability Mapping},
  author={Shan, Tixiao and Wang, Jinkun and Englot, Brendan and Doherty, Kevin},
  booktitle={In Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Conference on Robot Learning},
  year={2018}
}