Can turtlebot_simulator be loaded with a PGM map?

Question

Hello,

I have a Turtlebot 2 on ROS Hydro, and I am working on an algorithm for smart autonomous navigation through a known map. I have a map of the building I wanted to test in PGM form, obtained from running Gmapping. In real life, I would take this map, boot up my 'bot, load AMCL for localization within my PGM map, and then start my navigation algorithm.

I'd like to also be able to do this in the simulation world, i.e., start the simulator, load my map into Gazebo, start AMCL with the same map, and start my algorithm and watch the simulated robot drive around.

Currently I cannot find any way to load the PGM into Gazebo or convert it into a .world file. Is this something that's already available or would I need to write a custom program to create a world file where each black pixel is an obstacle?

Thanks in advance!

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Originally posted by BlitherPants on ROS Answers with karma: 504 on 2014-11-17

Post score: 1

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Original comments

Comment by jihoonl on 2014-11-19:
Yeah I was curious about this. It would be really nice feature to test sensors and robot logics in simulation.

Comment by BlitherPants on 2014-11-19:
So you don't think this option is yet available?

Answer 1

I would recommend checking out stage_ros which can read in PGMs.

It's also possible Stage's more modern cousin STDR can, but I haven't investigated the package at all.

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Originally posted by David Lu with karma: 10932 on 2014-11-19

This answer was ACCEPTED on the original site

Post score: 0

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Original comments

Comment by BlitherPants on 2014-11-19:
Is turtlebot_stage only available on Indigo? I have a Hydro installation and can't seem to find it...

Comment by David Lu on 2014-11-19:
Should be on hydro.

Comment by BlitherPants on 2014-11-19:
I can roscd to stage_ros but not turtlebot_stage, and I can't find the appropriate package using apt-get

Comment by jihoonl on 2014-11-20:
There are no released package in hydro. But you should be able to checkout turtlebot_simulator hydro-devel branch which includes turtlebot_stage. https://github.com/turtlebot/turtlebot_simulator/tree/hydro-devel

Comment by BlitherPants on 2014-11-21:
Thanks @jihoonl! I'll check that out.