Getting Started

Running VTR3 Offline

A comprehensive video tutorial was created to get new users familiar with the User Interface as well as explore the features available for VT&R3. We recommend viewing this video before attempting to run any version of VT&R3. This demo will show you how to:

• Initialize the user interface
• Enter teach mode and manually drive a new path
• Perform loop closures
• Align the pose graph with the satellite imagery
• Teach additional branches to a graph
• Repeat along a path to user defined waypoints
• Utilize multi-experience localization
• Load and initialize pose graphs from previous driving sessions

We also have some supplementary tutorials specific for the offline versions of Stereo SURF-Feature-Based T&R and LiDAR Point-Cloud-Based T&R. Please note the offline data was recorded manually and as such the path tracking may not function correctly.

Prerequisites

It is assumed that VT&R is Installed. Follow the Docker Instructions

ASRL Lab Use Only: See the internal page for details on installing on the Grizzly or Warthog.

Lidar Teach & Repeat

Launching VT&R3 to use LiDAR point-clouds as input:

# launch command
tmuxp load ${VTRSRC}/launch/offline_honeycomb_grizzly.launch.yaml

Open the UI in browser at localhost:5200

Data playback for teaching a path:

• Run these lines in a separate terminal after initializing the UI into teach mode.

  # replay the first ros2 bag
  source ${VTRSRC}/main/install/setup.bash
  ros2 bag play ${VTRDATA}/utias_20210921_ros2bag/rosbag2_2021_09_21-16_25_56

Data playback for repeating a path:

• Run these lines in a separate terminal after teaching a path, entering repeat mode, and specifying repeat waypoints.

  # replay the second ros2 bag
  source ${VTRSRC}/main/install/setup.bash
  ros2 bag play ${VTRDATA}/utias_20210921_ros2bag/rosbag2_2021_09_21-16_28_53

• Terminate VT&R3 (Ctrl-C once in terminal)