GazeboDrone project added to connect a gazebo drone to the AirSim drone

[jonyMarino]

Fixes: #2380

About

This CMake project allows connecting a gazebo drone to the AirSim drone, using the gazebo drone as a flight dynamic model (FDM) and AirSim to generate sensor data.

How Has This Been Tested?

Following the added Readme.md
and running PX4 with make px4_sitl gazebo_iris together with QGroundControl.
Airsim using the compiled Blocks binary.

Screenshots (if appropriate):

airsim-gazebo.mp4

[zimmy87]

looks good other than some minor comments

[nkbeebe]

Is it feasible to replace the gazebo drone for a fixed wing model, to run the physics behind a plane, but still use AirSim for the data collection?

[jonyMarino]

@nkbeebe. Yes, you can do that. It would be great if someone contributes with an API method to set the rotors' angular velocity. Take a look at this tutorial on how to change the drone mesh: https://youtu.be/Bp86WiLUC80. You need to get the mesh of the vehicle you are trying to simulate. You would help the community a lot if you post a video on youtube on how to run AirSim with FixedWing in the way you decide to do it. Keep me updated please.

[nkbeebe]

But is that using Gazebo physics of a drone? Akin to simply replacing the Gazebo drone with a plane, but moving the plane as a drone would? My question is more of using the physics engine of a Gazebo plane, alongside the mesh. So the plane moves in the dynamics a Gazebo plane would move - not a gazebo drone would.

[jonyMarino]

Yes, I have understood your question. I'm not 100% sure if it is going to work, I think so. The GazeboDrone project subscribes to the pose updates of the drone and sends them to the AirSim drone through setVehiclePose, so if you use a plane in gazebo and the GazeboDrone project, can subscribe to its pose, then it will work.

[nikitabeebe]

Sorry if this is a simple question, but following the readme for this merge, I need to have UE4 running with the original AirSim build using clang, then once that is up along with gazebo, I can use the command ./GazeboDrone to then start that simulation? And for the build step, what directory am I creating a new build directory? I ask because when I run this command, I get a "The source directory "/Users/nikitabeebe/Documents/GitHub/airsim" does not appear to contain CMakeLists.txt."

[jonyMarino]

Hi @nikitabeebe! You are correct about the order.
The build folder goes inside the GazeboDrone folder.

[nikitabeebe]

Also, does this project require the use of PX4, or can it be run without that program entirely? (Just using QGroundControl for joystick input)

[jonyMarino]

Hi @nikitabeebe! I think QGroundControl only works with PX4. But yes, you should be able to connect to gazebo without PX4 connected to it.

[nikitabeebe]

Thank you for confirming. That's what I initially thought @jonyMarino. If you could then, can you take a look at an issue request I created, as I am still unable to compile and run this project like you have demonstrated. I've tried to rule out all the issues with versions or missing dependencies, but I keep getting hung up on the make task for building the GazeboDrone...

#3874

Any input or insight into possible fixes would be a life saver!