README.md

Underwater Vehicle and Manipulator Simulator

A simulator for the BlueROV Heavy equipped with a Reach Alpha 5 manipulator based on ros2_control framework. Integrates Thor Fossen’s underwater dynamics with Featherstone's manipulator dynamics algorithm for realistic simulations.

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Features

• Realistic Dynamics: Accurate simulation of underwater vehicle and manipulator behaviors.
• Multi-Agent Support: Simulate multiple agents within a shared environment.
• Video Demonstration:

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Getting Started

• ROS2 installation

Prerequisites

Ensure the following dependencies are installed:

sudo apt-get install git-lfs
sudo apt-get install ros-humble-hardware-interface
sudo apt-get install ros-humble-xacro
sudo apt-get install ros-humble-controller-manager
sudo apt-get install ros-humble-joint-state-broadcaster
sudo apt-get install ros-humble-joint-state-publisher-gui
sudo apt-get install ros-humble-forward-command-controller
sudo apt-get install ros-humble-ros2-control

# Install CasADi (required for dynamics and kinematics calculations)
# Follow the installation instructions on the CasADi wiki:
# https://github.com/casadi/casadi/wiki/InstallationLinux

# Initialize Git LFS and pull the necessary files for dynamics and kinematics
git lfs install
git lfs pull

Clone additional packages to ros2 workspace:

• uvms_dynamics_ros2_control
• uvms_interfaces

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/edxmorgan/uvms-simulator.git

2. Navigate to the project directory:

   cd blue-heavy-dynamics-simulator

3. Install dependencies:

   rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y

4. Build the workspace:

   colcon build

5. Source the workspace:

   source install/setup.bash

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Dynamics Foundation

This simulator incorporates and extends:

• Vehicle dynamics from diff_uv.
• Unified UVMS dynamics from diff_uvms.

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Documentation

For detailed setup and usage instructions, refer to the User Documentation.

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Online Resources

• ROS Control
• Reach Robotics SDK
• Blue Robotics

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue or submit a pull request for enhancements or bug fixes.

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

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