Overview

URFI_project simulates a six‑wheeled rover in Ignition Fortress Gazebo using ROS 2 Humble on Ubuntu 22.04, providing modular packages for robot description, control, simulation integration, and autonomous navigation​.

Video Demonstration

urfiDemo.mp4

Click to watch the rover navigating a custom world in Ignition Fortress​.

Prerequisites

• Ubuntu 22.04 LTS – Tier 1 platform for ROS 2 Humble Hawksbill​
• ROS 2 Humble – Install desktop packages (ros-humble-desktop) via apt per official guide​
• Ignition Fortress – Recommended simulation engine paired with ROS 2 Humble; install via sudo apt install ignition-fortress​
• colcon – Build tool for ROS 2 workspaces; installed with ros-humble-colcon-common-extensions
• rosdep – Dependency resolver for ROS distributions; initialize and update before building​:

Installation

# Clone repository and prepare workspace
git clone https://github.com/alexoberco/urfi_project.git
cd urfi_project
mkdir -p ros2_ws/src
mv * ros2_ws/src/
cd ros2_ws

# Install dependencies
rosdep update
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -y

# Build and source
colcon build --symlink-install
source install/setup.bash

Use colcon build from your workspace root to compile ROS 2 packages.

Workspace Structure

ros2_ws/
├── src/
│   ├── starter/             # Core nodes, launch scripts & tests
│   ├── urfi_description/    # URDF & SDF models, meshes & RViz configs
│   ├── urfi_control/        # ros2_control controller configs
│   ├── urfi_gz_ignition/    # Ignition Fortress launch integrations
│   └── urfi_navigation/     # Nav2 stack configs, maps & demos
├── install/
├── build/
└── log/

Following standard ROS 2 workspace conventions, all packages reside under src/​.

Package Details

starter

Includes template C++/Python nodes, launch files, and basic tests to verify workspace integrity.

urfi_description

• urdf/: XACRO definitions of the six‑wheeled rover
• meshes/: STL/DAE files for visual and collision models
• worlds/: SDF files defining custom Ignition worlds
• rviz/: RViz configuration for real-time visualization

urfi_control

Configures ros2_control controllers (PID gains, joint limits) for wheel and steering interfaces​.

urfi_gz_ignition

Launch files that:

1. Start Ignition Fortress with a custom world
2. Spawn rover via ros2 run ros_gz_bridge parameter_bridge
3. Bridge ROS 2 topics and services with Ignition​

urfi_navigation

Sets up Nav2 for autonomous navigation:

• maps/: Predefined occupancy grids
• config/: nav2_params.yaml and costmap settings
• launch/: Demo launch to test autonomous path planning and recovery

Usage Examples

• Simulation Launch
  ros2 launch urfi_gz_ignition simulation_launch.py
• Teleoperation
  ros2 launch starter teleop_launch.py
• Navigation Demo
  ros2 launch urfi_navigation nav2_demo_launch.py
• RViz Visualization
  ros2 launch urfi_description view_rviz_launch.py

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please fork the repo, create a feature branch, and submit a pull request against main. Ensure new packages include appropriate launch demos and tests​.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License, providing a permissive open-source framework while ensuring proper attribution to authors​.