DonkeyCar Ros

About The Project

Introduction

This is a new software stack for donkey car based on ROS1. This project is currently in its early stages. I'm working on it to add more features in the future. The software stack can only work on jetson nano.

Project Layout

src/controller   # The controller nodes that send the control commends based on user operations or neural network
src/actuator     # The actuator nodes that subscirbe the control commends and control the steer and motor
src/recorder     # Used to collect data if you want to train an autopilot
src/donkeycar    # Store launch files, model files, as well as collected data
src/inferencer   # Inferencer plugins for the nn_controller_node

Dependencies

• ros-melodic-desktop-full
• ros-melodic-cv-bridge
• ros-melodic-joy
• ros-melodic-gscam
• opencv
• tensorrt (optional)
• tensorflow (optional)

Getting Started On Jetson Nano

Install ros-melodic

see Ubuntu install of ROS Melodic for details.

Download && Build

1. Clone the workspace

   git clone https://github.com/Trustworthy-Engineered-Autonomy-Lab/donkeycar_ros.git

2. Install dependent ros packages

   cd donkeycar_ros
   rosdep install --from-paths src

3. Build and export the workspace

   catkin_make
   source devel/setup.bash

Usage

Drive the car

roslaunch donkeycar drive.launch

Then you can drive the car by joystick

Collect data

roslaunch donkeycar collect.launch

Then you can press the Start button on joystick to start recording and press the Back button to stop. the images will be saved under the data folder.

Use autopilot

1. Create a models folder under the donkey package folder.
2. Download the latest model from Coming soon to the models folder just created.
3. run the command

roslaunch donkeycar autopilot.launch

Then AI model will control the steer, you can control the throttle by the joystick.

Contribute

Write a inferencer plugin

check out Inferencer plugins for details.

Submit an issue.

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

Authors

Zhongzheng R. Zhang - [email protected]