Duatic Simulation

Gazebo simulation environment for Duatic robotic platforms.

Overview

Provides Gazebo Harmonic simulation worlds, robot spawning, and ROS-Gazebo bridge configuration for Duatic robots. Includes empty world and warehouse environment with AWS RoboMaker assets.

Usage

Launch Simulation Environment

Using ROS Node (Recommended)

The start_sim node provides a managed way to start and stop the simulation. It automatically ensures the simulation container is properly shut down when the node terminates.

# Empty world (default)
ros2 run duatic_simulation start_sim.py

# Warehouse world
ros2 run duatic_simulation start_sim.py --ros-args -p world:=warehouse

# Headless simulation
ros2 run duatic_simulation start_sim.py --ros-args -p world:=warehouse -p headless:=true

Benefits:

• Automatic cleanup: Docker container is stopped when node shuts down (Ctrl+C)
• ROS integration: Works as a standard ROS node with parameters
• Process management: Proper lifecycle handling

Using Launch File Directly

# Empty world (default)
ros2 launch duatic_simulation gazebo.launch.py

# Warehouse world
ros2 launch duatic_simulation gazebo.launch.py world:=warehouse

# Headless simulation
ros2 launch duatic_simulation gazebo.launch.py world:=warehouse headless:=true

Spawn Robot

Prerequisite: URDF is being published with the topic /{namespace}/robot_description

# Basic spawn
ros2 launch duatic_simulation spawn.launch.py namespace:=robot1 x:=0 y:=0 z:=1 yaw:=0

# Multiple robots
ros2 launch duatic_simulation spawn.launch.py namespace:=alpha x:=0 y:=0 z:=1 yaw:=0 &
ros2 launch duatic_simulation spawn.launch.py namespace:=beta x:=2 y:=2 z:=1 yaw:=1.57 &

ROS-Gazebo Bridge

# Launch bridge with config file
ros2 launch duatic_simulation ros_gz_bridge.launch.py \
  namespace:=robot1 \
  world:=warehouse \
  config_file:=/path/to/bridge_config.yaml

Launch Files

File	Description
gazebo.launch.py	Main simulation environment
spawn.launch.py	Robot spawning interface
ros_gz_bridge.launch.py	ROS-Gazebo topic bridge

Nodes

start_sim.py

ROS 2 node that manages the simulation Docker container lifecycle.

Parameters:

• world (string, default: "empty"): World name to load
• headless (bool, default: false): Run simulation without GUI

Features:

• Starts simulation container using docker compose
• Automatically stops container on node shutdown
• Proper cleanup with Ctrl+C
• ROS parameter support

Example:

ros2 run duatic_simulation start_sim.py --ros-args -p world:=warehouse -p headless:=false

Parameters

gazebo.launch.py

Parameter	Default	Description
world	"empty"	World name (empty, warehouse)
headless	false	Run without GUI

spawn.launch.py

Parameter	Default	Description
namespace	"empty_namespace"	Robot namespace
x, y, z	0.0	Spawn position
yaw	0.0	Spawn orientation

ros_gz_bridge.launch.py

Parameter	Default	Description
namespace	"empty_namespace"	Robot namespace
world	"undefined"	World name
config_file	-	Bridge configuration file

Available Worlds

• duatic_empty: Minimal environment for basic testing
• warehouse: AWS RoboMaker warehouse with shelves, pallets, and clutter

Assets

AWS RoboMaker Models

• Warehouse infrastructure (shelves, walls, ground)
• Props (buckets, lamps, trash cans, pallet jacks)
• Clutter objects for realistic environments