Project 4 of the Udacity Robotics Nanodegree Program

This project uses the ROS RTAB-Map package to map an environment.

ROS and Gazebo installed on Linux workspace

Dependencies:

$ sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-navigation ros-kinetic-map-server ros-kinetic-move-base ros-kinetic-amcl

RTAB-Map Package:

$ sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-rtabmap-ros

Clone the repository, navigate to the root level directory, build the catkin files and launch gazebo world.

$ catkin_make
$ source devel/setup.bash
$ roslaunch my_robot world.launch

Open a new terminal and run the teleop node to move the robot.

$ source devel/setup.bash
$ rosrun teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard.py

Open a new terminal and launch the mapping node.

$ source devel/setup.bash
$ roslaunch my_robot mapping.launch

Move the robot in the gazebo environment to create a map by going over a path a few times, and getting 3 loop closures is sufficient to map the environment.

The following tool can be used for exploring the database when done generatin it. It can be used to check for loop closures, generate 3D maps, extract images etc.

rtabmap-databaseViewer ~/.ros/rtabmap.db

A map of the living room is generated by generating 3 loop closures on the map.