GAPTER: Moving in Shapes¶

First launch the simulation, see following links for further details:

TO BE PROVIDED

Figure 1: Launch the simulator

After launching the simulator, Take off the drone:

# in the MAVProxy prompt:
mode GUIDED
arm throttle
takeoff 2

Figure 2: Drone taking off

Then, in new terminal, launch the ROS node:

rosrun gapter_py move_shapes.py

../_images/gapter_ros_moving_in_shapes_fig_1.png

Figure 3: Moving in shapes

Code Explanation¶

The source code could be found in github_link.

To move the drone, a TwistStamped message with appropriate velocities must sent to the /mavros/setpoint_velocity/cmd_vel topic.

moveSquare() is used to allow the drone to move on square, we just specify the side length.

def moveSquare():
   square_pub = rospy.Publisher('/mavros/setpoint_velocity/cmd_vel', TwistStamped, queue_size=10)
   square = TwistStamped()

   user_input = raw_input("Enter the length of th square side: "); # input from user
   side_length = float(user_input)

   flag_x = 1
   flag_y = 1
   for x in range(2,6):
       if 4%x == 0:
               square.twist.linear.x = side_length
               flag_x= -1
       else:
               square.twist.linear.y = side_length
               flag_y= -1

       square_pub.publish(square)
       rospy.sleep(5)

       square.twist.linear.x=0;
       square.twist.linear.y=0;
       square_pub.publish(square);
       rospy.sleep(2);

       if flag_x == -1 and flag_y == -1:
               side_length *= -1
               flag_x = 1
               flag_y = 1

To move on circle:

def moveCircle():

   circle_pub = rospy.Publisher('/mavros/setpoint_velocity/cmd_vel', TwistStamped, queue_size=10)
   circle = TwistStamped()


   circle.twist.linear.x=0.5
   circle.twist.linear.z=0.5
   circle_pub.publish(circle)