ArUco generator for Gazebo

A small utility that converts an aruco_pose-compatible map to a Gazebo world, creating all required ArUco models in the process.

Usage

Clone this repository, then run

python3 ./generator.py <path/to/your/map.txt>

in the repository folder.

The script will generate all required ArUco marker models and place them in their respective folders (for example, ArUco marker 42 will be placed in aruco_42 folder). Additionally, the script will generate the aruco_world.world file with references to the newly created models.

Move the marker folders to your ${HOME}/.gazebo/models folder (create it if it's missing), then run

gazebo ./aruco_world.world

Hacking

If you wish to add ArUco models to an existing .world file, copy your .world file to templates/world_template.world, open it in a text editor and add

    $model_inclusions

where you wish the model inclusions to be placed. A good example would be after the <world> tag:

  <world name="default">
    $model_inclusions
    <include>
      <uri>model://sun</uri>
    </include>
    <!-- more descriptions -->

Now run the script to generate a new .world file based on your new template:

python3 ./generator.py <path/to/your/map.txt>

You can place your newly generated aruco_world.world file back to the original folder of your project and rename it if necessary.

Shortcomings

Since this is a quick and dirty way to generate worlds, there are multiple issues with it:

• Currently the generator expects to be executed from the source checkout directory;
• The generator is hardcoded to use the DICT_4X4_1000 ArUco dictionary;
• The generator has no way of specifying the output directory for markers and .world files;
• The generator does not validate the map; as such, you can generate worlds from incorrect maps (with duplicate markers, for instance);
• In fact, if you try to generate several markers with the same ID but different sizes, only the marker with the last specified size will be generated;
• There are probably a lot more bugs here.

Consider this software a "proof of concept" quality.