Package Summary

A example for how the laser pointer interface works the PR2. In this demo behavior, the PR2 tracks the detected point using its pan-tilt then navigates towards it when the user double clicks the selected point.

Author: Hai Nguyen, Advisor: Prof. Charlie Kemp, Lab: Healthcare Robotics Lab at Georgia Tech
License: BSD
Source: git https://code.google.com/p/gt-ros-pkg.hrl/ (branch: master)

Contents

Requirements
Running

Requirements

PR2 Robot with gt-ros-pkg repository checked out
C-turtle
A properly setup `laser_interface` package.

Running

Launching

To quickly get up and running run the following commands:

ssh pr2c1 #Replace with the address of your PR2's c1 computer.
roslaunch pr2_laser_follow_behavior follow_pointer.launch 2> /dev/null

Note that, by default, this launch script runs the map server with the map for our building, HSI, so replace the appropriate part of the launch script for better navigation in your facility. However, this is not strictly necessary if you're not sending any navigation commands.

On another computer with a running X server launch the GUI with:

rosrun laser_interface user_interface_node.py

User Interface

With the joystick, position the robot's head to point at the floor in front of it. If you now activate the laser-mouse (make sure your cursor is over the GUI's window) and point it in the field of view of the robot it should move its head to look at your laser point. When satisfied with the 3D location that the robot is looking at, double click the laser-mouse to have the robot drive there. Note that double clicking while the robot is executing the navigation command will cancel it.

Demo State Machine

The demo is governed by a state machine. At start up it launches in the state turn, a mode where the robot's cameras can be guided by the laser pointer. When you double click the laser-mouse, the robot will transition into the state move and drive to the last seen 3D location. On receipt of a cancel command (by double clicking) or notification of success the state machine will transition to back to turn.