Week 3 & 4 - minaamakary/MENA GitHub Wiki

21-07-2024 - Robot arm creation

Cloned a repository for a robot arm from mecademics to integrate into my world for the painting purposes. The integration worked but there are some issues that we are facing with the launch files. Both the room world and the arm are visible in Gazebo but the robot arm is like a ghost (not recognized as an object). Even in RVIZ the laser scan passes through the arm without seeing it.

26-07-2024 - Debugging the Rover Launch

Created the rover, but it doesn't display in Gazebo, tried changing pose, size and color but issue still persists.

27-07-2024 - Using Turtlebot

After multiple attempts of creating a robot, to be more convenient and time efficient, launching turtlebot and placing a LiDAR on it.

28-07-2024 - VLP-16 LiDAR fitting on Turtlebot

After achieving tele-operation successfully, replaced the LiDAR sensor that is on the turtlebot, with VLP-16 LiDAR sensor which was the one configured earlier. This was achieved by modifying the turtlebot3_burger.gazebo.xacro file and replaced the LiDAR configuration with built in on the turtlebot file. Below is a representation of the turtlebot scanning around the room. The next step would be to create a map of the room.

29-07-2024 - Creating a 3D Map

Created a 3D Map of the room

Below is a pcd file that shows a representation of the current room.

30-07-2024 - PCD file and next steps (Identifying walls)

The next step would be to identify the number of walls in the room. By detecting corners, and changes in angle, we can identify how many walls are present in the room. The approach we will use is to search for any sudden changes in the angles to detect a corner. If the angle changes to 20% or more it means this might be a corner to another wall. Some of the limitations that might arise is the objects that could be available in the corners, like a bookshelf for instance, that can be misinterpreted into a wall corner.