Starting and testing the global planner

Table of Contents

• How to start the stack
• Passing metrics

How to start the stack

Start simulation as described in LGSVL simulator. Additionally, to configure LGSVL for this demonstration:

1. Maps: use this map link
2. Vehicles: Select ROS2 native bridge type and paste the content of AutowareAuto/lgsvl-sensors.json into the Sensors text box
3. Simulations: In General tab, Select Cluster = Local Machine and untick any boxes. In Map & Vehicles tab, ensure to untick Run simulation in interactive mode. In Traffic tab, untick all selection. The Weather tab is irrelevant.

terminal 1

# start sim according to instructions above but don't drive away yet to make sure we can localize ourselves

terminal 2

> ade enter
ade$ cd AutowareAuto && source install/setup.bash
ade$ colcon build --packages-up-to autoware_auto_avp_demo
ade$ stdbuf -o L ros2 launch autoware_auto_avp_demo ms3_sim.launch.py

The stdbuf command above is needed because the default in ROS is to only output lines from stdout when the buffer is full. This command changes that setting to use a "line buffer" which outputs every line, providing more debugging information.

terminal 3

> ade enter
ade$ cd AutowareAuto && source install/setup.bash
ade$ ros2 topic echo /planning/global_path

Before selecting a goal, you will need to initialize localization. To do this switch to the rviz window, click the 2D Pose Estimate button at the top, and then click at the approximate location where the vehicle currently is in the map and drag in the direction of the vehicle's heading. You can verify that the vehicle has been localized by the vehicle model jumping to the new location and the real-time lider scans matching up with the static lidar map.

Next, to select a parking spot graphically, click the 2D Nav Goal button in rviz, click in the goal location, and drag in the direction of the goal heading.

Optionally, to send a goal position/heading programmatically:

terminal 4

> ade enter
ade$
ros2 topic pub --once /planning/goal_pose geometry_msgs/msg/PoseStamped "{
header:
  {stamp:
    {sec: 1600775035,
    nanosec: 496432027},
  frame_id: map},
pose:
  {position:
    {x: -77.87589263916016,
    y: -18.580652236938477,
    z: 0.0},
  orientation:
    {x: 0.0,
    y: 0.0,
    z: 0.14149930538744868,
    w: 0.9899383549367453}}}
"

The path with lane IDs should be output in terminal 3.

Note To choose a different parking spot, click 2D Nav Goal in rviz and listen to the message with

ros2 topic echo /goal_pose

and update the values in the message in YAML format above.

Passing metrics

The output message looks like

...
primitives:
- id: 8252
  primitive_type: parking
- id: 9074
  primitive_type: drivable_area
- id: 6581
  primitive_type: lane
 
# lots of lanes omitted
 
- id: 6700
  primitive_type: lane
- id: 7957
  primitive_type: drivable_area
- id: 9824
  primitive_type: parking

To check if the route is reasonable, open the OSM map AutowareAuto/src/tools/autoware_auto_avp_demo/data/autonomousstuff_parking_lot.osm in a text editor and search for way id='9824. It references a node, the center of the entrance line, 9831 in this case. Searching for its coordinates, they are:

  <node id='9831' visible='true' version='1' lat='37.38065126054' lon='-121.90931385745'>

To graphically inspect this, install the qgis tool with:

sudo apt install qgis

and follow this tutorial to open the .osm file. Finally, install a plugin called Lat Lon Tools and enter the coordinates to pinpoint the node with a red crosshair.