[ros-users] [Discourse.ros.org] [ROS Projects] Precision Agriculture Simulation with a Quadcopter in Gazebo

[Tahsin Kose]

You can see the version 1 of exploration [in this video](https://youtu.be/ZWn9N9Y_tb8). 

Currently, the volume of interest is specified with 6 constants  - XMIN,XMAX,YMIN,YMAX,ZMIN,ZMAX. In future, it would be a good idea to support it to be specified in run time via graphical tools (e.g. hand-drawing through Rviz).

I'm using MoveIt! to exploit its Motion Planning pipeline in which the planners take the instant [Octomap](http://octomap.github.io/) into consideration when properly integrated to the system. MoveIt! also supports `Execute Path Service` specification as a plugin (i.e. controller), but  I only use [SimpleActionClient ](https://docs.ros.org/diamondback/api/actionlib/html/classactionlib_1_1SimpleActionClient.html) currently by reading the waypoints into a vector of Pose's and sequentially execute them. Dynamic Collision Checking and Replanning done with the callback attached to action client by checking the validity of path through isPathValid() method of [PlanningScene](http://docs.ros.org/kinetic/api/moveit_core/html/classplanning__scene_1_1PlanningScene.html) during goal execution of action server. PlanningScene is fetched via `/get_planning_scene` service provided by the `move_group`.

Also, I want to list some issues that need to be resolved at version 2.

* Orientation fixation of quadcopter before motion. Since Kinect (or any other stereo camera) does not have 360 degree of FOV, the velocity vector and the orientation of the camera should be equal. Otherwise, drone might not see its front exactly; thus couldn't notice the obstacle in front and thinks the latched path is still valid, whereas it isn't.

* Implementation of a velocity controller or directly using existing alternatives, if any. By this, motions will be much smoother with respect to position control.

* Implementation of a Frontier approach that determines the next goal from extracted frontiers. Currently, the goals are hardcoded in a way that traverses the faces and corners of the rectangular volume.





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