StoneFish ROS 2 Marine Robotics Simulator

Overview

The repository provides a Docker container with a bash scripts that can seamlessly build and run the container.

Docker container offers ROS 2 environment whare you can launch vehicles in StoneFish.

The repository provides all necessary commands and references that can boost your software's research and development process, which utilizes the ROS 2 stack.

SITL allows you to simulate the vehicle hardware and firmware ArduSub on your host directly.

There are several scripts in: /extras_rov, /extras_boat to communicate with vehicle using Pymavlink.

There is a simple ROS 2 interface to ArduPilot (only for BlueROV2). Check /extras_interface.

Prerequisites

• Install NVIDIA Container Toolkit to support Docker to access GPU (required).
• Repository has been tested on: Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, ArchLinux (Kernel 6.8).

Notes

Adjust paths in run.sh.

local_workspace="/home/markus/underwater/stonefish_ros2_marine_robotics/src"
local_stonefish="/home/markus/underwater/stonefish_ros2_marine_robotics/stonefish"
local_sf_ws="/home/markus/underwater/stonefish_ros2_marine_robotics/sf_ws"
local_gz_ws="/home/markus/underwater/stonefish_ros2_marine_robotics/gz_ws"
local_SITL_Models="/home/markus//underwater/stonefish_ros2_marine_robotics/SITL_Models"

Build Docker

git clone https://github.com/markusbuchholz/stonefish_ros2_marine_robotics.git

cd /stonefish_ros2_marine_robotics/docker

sudo ./build.sh

Run Docker

sudo ./run.sh

cd ../stonefish

# IMPORTANT. You build only once since the stonefish volume is on your HOST.
mkdir -p build && cd build

cmake ..

make -j$(nproc)

# IMPORTANT. You have to run these two commands every time you run Docker container.
# 1.
sudo make install
# 2.
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/stonefish/build/libStonefish.so:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

cd ../../sf_ws/

colcon build --packages-select stonefish_ros2
source install/setup.bash

colcon build --packages-select cola2_msgs
source install/setup.bash

colcon build
source install/setup.bash

---

Start StoneFish with BlueROV2

ros2 launch cola2_stonefish bluerov_fls_simulation.launch.py

Start StoneFish with BlueBoat

ros2 launch cola2_stonefish blueboat_launch.py

Start StoneFish with BlueROV2 and ArduPilot

#terminal 1
ros2 run stonefish_bluerov2 ardusim_patch.py

#terminal 2
ros2 launch stonefish_bluerov2 bluerov2_sim.launch.py

#terminal 3
sim_vehicle.py -v ArduSub -f vectored_6dof --model JSON --map  -l 55.99541530863445,-3.3010225004910683,0,0 -m --streamrate=-1

#terminal 4
cd /home/sf_ws/src/extras_rov
# run example script
# check for other scripts
python3 python3 pos_req.py

Start StoneFish with BlueBoat and ArduPilot

#terminal 1
ros2 run stonefish_bluerov2 ardusim_patch_boat.py

#terminal 2
ros2 launch stonefish_bluerov2 blueboat_sim.launch.py

#terminal 3
sim_vehicle.py -v Rover -f boat --model JSON --map --console -l 55.99541530863445,-3.3010225004910683,0,0

#terminal 4
cd /home/sf_ws/src/extras_boat
# run example script
# check for other scripts
python3 python3 check.py

ROS 2 interface provides two common topics (ROS 2 is a function wrapper for Mavlink protocol):

cd /home/sf_ws/src/extras_boat
python3 python3 ros2_simple_blueboat_interface.py

/bluerov2/odometry
/bluerov2/cmd_vel
/bluerov2/servo_outputs

Run simple motion directly to ArduRover,

cd /home/sf_ws/src/extras_boat
python3 pwm_control.py

Start StoneFish with BlueBoat, ArduPilot and simple ROS 2 interface

ROS 2 interface provides two common topics (ROS 2 is a function wrapper for Mavlink protocol):

/bluerov2/odometry
/bluerov2/cmd_vel
/bluerov2/servo_outputs

#terminal 1
ros2 run stonefish_bluerov2 ardusim_patch_ros2_interface.py 

#terminal 2
ros2 launch stonefish_bluerov2 bluerov2_sim_ros2_interface.launch.py

#terminal 3
sim_vehicle.py -v Rover -f boat --model JSON --map --console -l 55.99541530863445,-3.3010225004910683,0,0

#terminal 4
cd /home/sf_ws/src/extras_interface
python3 ros2_simple_interface.py

Move BlueROV2,

ros2 topic pub -r 10 /bluerov2/cmd_vel geometry_msgs/msg/Twist "linear:
  x: 0.0
  y: 0.0
  z: -2.0
angular:
  x: 0.0
  y: 0.0
  z: 0.0" --qos-reliability reliable --qos-durability transient_local --qos-depth 10 -1

The PWM values: /bluerov2/servo_outputs during robot motion can be simply saved,

cd /home/sf_ws/src/extras_interface
python3 ros2_pwm_topic_recorder.py

Links

• StoneFish github
• ArduSub
• Pymavlink
• Stonefish_bluerov2
• StoneFish paper