More About My GTSP Internship

Here are three different images of the Ubuntu commands I performed to launch the exported URDF design files in Gazebo Simulator. The first step in the process was to launch VNC Viewer, the software we used to run Gazebo.

Once VNC was started, the next step consisted of simply navigating through the shared Docker directories to locate the proper URDF file. In this instance, the name of the file was known as the tracy work station, or "tracy_ws" for short. The env.sh shell script was also executed to set up and list variables used in our environment.

Once the VNC environment was generated, the robot could be manipulated to test for specific design considerations. In this case, the robot was meant to be fully autonomous. As such, it needed to identify objects blocking its trajectory, and maneuver around them.

Above is an example of what Gazebo Simulator looks like. A virtual environment is created for the robot URDF file, and simulates the design under various effects or circumstances. This was useful in particular to analyze the robot's turning radius, terrain progression, and overall motion stability.

A brief overview of the general procedure for the work the interns were performing at GTSP during this project. The designs are first sketched and modelled in SolidWorks, then are exported to URDF. From there, the interns used Docker repositories and ran multiple commands in Windows Subsystem for Linux through PowerShell to pull the design files. Finally, the interns used Ubuntu 18.04 to launch Gazebo Simulator, and uploaded the design files to test them.