SIMULATIONS IN OLFACTORY, MANY ROBOTS

This blog post describes a player/stage simulation for multiple robot mapping with goals or reference points as odor sources. Let's think of a situation where we need to explore large environment and generate its map which can be used later on for navigation and localization. In this scenario, instead of single robot exploring such a large environment, its always beneficial and effective (in terms of processor usage and time) to allow multiple robots to explore different parts of the environment and merge the maps finally whether topologically or based on overlap regions in occupancy grid. 

This idea is based on Mobile Robot Olfactory experiments performed by ISR Embedded Systems Lab, details of which can be found here: (http://ftp.isr.ist.utl.pt/pub/roswiki/simulator_plumesim.html). 

The idea of using PlumeSim library for this purpose came from this interesting project of PlumeSim framework which simulates odor transport in the environment. The basis of this project is that olfaction is a key sense in the survival of many biological species. 

This article deals with the process of installing PlumeSim plugin driver initially followed by multiple robot mapping simulation in player/ stage. This driver is capable of introducing simulated chemical plumes into a simulated/ real robot from broad range of sources to CFD (computer fluid dynamics) software. Based on data collected from real world experiments, its also able to playback recorded plume in future periodically. 

Below are the steps involved in setting up the driver for this purpose:

1. The driver library can be downloaded at this link or at this github
    link: https://github.com/DevasenaInupakutika/PlumeSim-1.0

2. Clone to your local repository through terminal as below:
    
    git clone https://github.com/DevasenaInupakutika/PlumeSim-1.0

3. Enter the directory: 

     cd PlumeSim-1.0

4. Build the library using below command which will create the required driver
    (libPlumeSim.so):

    make

This plug-in driver in player/ stage brings plume simulation into the world of mobile robotics. This can be used as a great tool for developing odor search algorithms providing smooth path from simulated robot to real environment.

Sample output, the blue dots show the plume of the gas

In this article, we have taken use-case of this driver in multi-robot map merging. For this purpose, please follow below steps:

Note:  Make sure all the path corresponding to player/ stage packages and library are at same location.

1. The player/ stage package can be downloaded from here using below 

    command:

    git clone  https://github.com/DevasenaInupakutika/Player_Plumsim 

2. cd Player_Plumsim and Use make clean command to clean if package is  

    already built.

3. Built the package as below:

   

   g++ -o main`pkg-config --cflags playerc++` main.cc `pkg-config --libs  

   playerc++`

4. Run the program as below:

    player map_square.cfg

    Open another terminal (in a separate tab):

    
    ./main -p 6665 -r 1 

    (which means robot 1 will start moving where 1 is robot id    and 6665 is port 

    number)

The configuration file (map_square.cfg) contains description of robots and 

corresponding ports. The prime important thing so as make multiple robots to move is to assign either separate port numbers for each robot or use separate robot ids on same port number.

5. In order to run another robot, open another terminal tab and type below   

    command:

    ./main -p 6665 -r 2

   and so on. This has maximum of 12 robots.

After executing all the above steps, you get results similar to the ones shown in the below screen shots and corresponding robot text files (robot<id>.txt) files get updated based on which robot is traversing the environment and it's distance from odor source. The emanating gas is shown in red while the robots from top view are circles of various colours.

The files being updated contains simulation environment's map topological data (in terms of coordinates).

This work has also been implemented on ROS - occupancy grid map merging where in robots generate local maps by exploring separate areas of environment and merge based on overlap regions into a final global map which will be discussed in separate article.

This can be implemented on real robots as well using the player server of the player/stage suit.