How to Use Player Stage

8/10/2019 How to Use Player Stage

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Installing and Using Software

from the Player ProjectRobert N. Lass

Drexel University

April 1st, 2010 (no joke)(some slides adapted from Cannon & Winners)


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Overview

Simulation

Player, Stage, and Gazebo

Installation Configuration

Writing Clients

Demo


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Simulation

Approximate of the real-world.

Why would we want to do this?

Faster, easier and cheaper to create;

Easier to experiment with and demonstrate;

Experimental repeatability.

What are some draw backs of simulations?

Not reality; Harder to transition to real life (although PS makes

it a bit easier).


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Software Overwiew

Player:

A server, that provides an abstraction layer to robots.

Stage:

A simulator; 2D;

Low fidelity, but can emulate more virtual robots.

Gazebo:

Another simulator;

3D;

High fidelity, but can not emulate as many virtual robots.


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What is Player?

Hardware abstraction layer for robots.

Implements a client/server model.

Communication over TCP sockets using thePlayer protocol.

Officially supported client libraries:

C, C++, Python Unofficially supported client libraries:

Java, LISP, Matlab

6Chris Cannon & Marc Winners


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Partial List of Supported Robotics

Hardware ManufacturerDevice(s)Driver

AcronameGarcia

BotricsObot d100

Evolution RoboticsER1 and ERSDK robots

iRobotRoomba vaccuming robot

K-TeamRobotics Extension Board (REB) attached to Kameleon 376BC

K-TeamKhephera MobileRobots(formerly ActivMedia) PSOS/P2OS/AROS-based robots (e.g., Pioneer, AmigoBot)

and integrated accessories, including a CMUcamconnected to the AUX port.

Nomadics NOMAD200 (and possibly related) mobile robots

RWI/iRobot RFLEX-based robots (e.g., B21r, ATRV Jr) and integrated accessories.

Segway Robotic Mobility Platform (RMP), a custom-modified version of the Human Transport(HT)

UPenn GRASP Clodbuster

Videre Design ERRATIC mobile robot platform

White Box Robotics 914 PC-BOT

Also supports numerous devices (sensors, actuators), software (e.g.: for speechrecognition), algorithms (e.g.: obstacle detection and avoidance), and simulators(which we talk about next).

* This list is taken from the Player Project Wiki.
http://www.acroname.com/http://www.botrics.com/http://www.evolution.com/http://www.irobot.com/http://www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=122http://www.k-team.com/http://playerstage.sourceforge.net/doc/Player-cvs/player/classREB.htmlhttp://www.k-team.com/http://www.mobilerobots.com/http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~cmucamhttp://www.activrobots.com/ROBOTS/p2dx.htmlhttp://www.activrobots.com/ROBOTS/amigobot.htmlhttp://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~cmucamhttp://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~cmucamhttp://www.activrobots.com/ROBOTS/amigobot.htmlhttp://www.activrobots.com/ROBOTS/p2dx.htmlhttp://www.mobilerobots.com/http://www.k-team.com/http://www.k-team.com/http://www.k-team.com/http://playerstage.sourceforge.net/doc/Player-cvs/player/classREB.htmlhttp://www.k-team.com/http://www.k-team.com/http://www.k-team.com/http://www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=122http://www.irobot.com/http://www.evolution.com/http://www.botrics.com/http://www.acroname.com/


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Switch

This is where you should switch to the Stage /

Gazebo slide 6.


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Other Simulator

What if Gazebo and Stage are not suitable for

your purposes?

Write your own!


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Installation

Instructions on

Player website; Ubuntu is

recommended;

Try running

/usr/share/stage/worlds/simple.cfgshould see thisimage -->

Use robot-playerv

to play with it.


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Installation, continued

I am not going to recreate every students

development environment;

I will be testing your assignments on Ubuntu ;

Windows: Ubuntu VM?

Macintosh: Probably works.


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Configuration Files

For details about any configuration issues, check thePlayer website, or Google player stage tutorial andread the first hit (a PDF by Jennifer Owen)

There are three main types of configuration files in

Player / Stage: .inc: Use these files to define objects that can appear in

worlds.

.world: This describes everything in the world (robot,objects, their layout, etc)

.cfg: This describes your robot, what drivers it has (whichwill always be stage in this class), how to interface witheach item, etc.


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Example: map.inc

define map model

(

# sombre, sensible, artistic

color "black"

# most maps will need a bounding box boundary 1

gui_nose 0

gui_grid 1

gui_movemask 0

gui_outline 0

gripper_return 0

)


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Example: maze-laser.world

# defines Roomba-like robots

include "roomba.inc"

# defines Roomba-like IR sensor

include "sick.inc"

# defines 'map' object used for floorplans

include "map.inc"

# size of the world in meters

size [50 50]

# set the resolution of the underlying raytrace model inmeters

resolution 0.02

# update the screen every 10ms (we need fast update for thestest demo)

gui_interval 20

# configure the GUI window

window

(

size [ 800.000 600.000 ]

center [-23.0 23.0]

scale 0.02

)

# load an environment bitmap

map (

bitmap "maze.png"

size [50 50]

name "maze"

)

# create a robot

pioneer2dx

( name "robot1"

color "red"

pose [-23.0 23.0 0.0]

sick_laser(samples 361 laser_sample_skip 4)

)


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Example: maze-laser.cfg

# load the Stage plugin simulationdriver

driver

(

name "stage"

provides ["simulation:0" ]

plugin "libstageplugin"

# load the named file into thesimulator

worldfile "maze-laser.world"

)

driver

(

name "stage"

provides ["map:0"]

model "maze"

)

# Create a Stage driver and attachposition2d and laser interfaces

# to the model "robot1"

driver

( name "stage"

provides [ "position2d:0" "laser:0"]

model "robot1"

)


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Map Descriptions

Located in the world file;

Accepts bitmaps;

Black pixels are considered walls, everythingelse is ignored;

Also describes the size of the simulation (the

unit is meters).


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Assignment One

I have provided a template. Feel free to

ignore it; its mainly to help you get started.

Please note that the JavaDocs on the website

are not current. Either refer to the generated

JavaDocs or the code for function names, etc.


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Switch to Terminal

This is where you should switch to the

terminal and show how to use Player / Stage.

Documents

How to Use Player Stage