Extended Social Comfort Robot Navigation Framework

This is an online social robot navigation framework for indoor social scenarios. From this work a paper conference was submitted Towards Online Socially Acceptable Robot Navigation. Check the Cite Our Paper in case you use this framework for your research or work.

It is composed of four different packages:

• esc_move_base_control: it is a simple differential control method.
• esc_move_base_mapping: is in charge of the perception of the space.
• esc_move_base_msgs: contains the messages needed for the framework and the start-goal queries.
• esc_move_base_planning: responsible for finding solution paths for the navigation query requested.

To understand more about how the framework works, you are highly encouraged to take a look at the paper.

To run the framework, there is a launch file example in every package with example configurations.

• Extended Social Comfort Robot Navigation Framework
  • World Modeling (esc_move_base_mapping)
    • Parameters
    • Subscribers
    • Publishers
    • Services
  • Online Social Robot Path Planning (esc_move_base_planning)
    • Parameters
    • Subscribers
    • Publishers
    • Actions
  • Path Following Control (esc_move_base_control)
    • Parameters
    • Subscribers
    • Publishers
  • Cite Our Paper

World Modeling (esc_move_base_mapping)

This package is in charge of the perception for the robot. For that, a depth camera is used, which helps to generate a 3D map of the space by using Octomap.

This 3D map is combined in a multilayer GridMap with the position of the social agents detected in the space.

Parameters

• resolution (double, default: 1.0)

  Octomap and Grid Map resolution.

• map_frame (string, default: "map")

• fixed_frame (string, default: "fixed_frame")

  Fixed frame considered for the mapping, can be odom for example.

• robot_frame (string, default: "/robot_frame")

  Base frame considered from the robot for the mapping.

• oflline_octomap_path (string, default: "")

  If defined, then the given map is used and no ther mapping is done.

• visualize_free_space (bool, default: True)

  Wether you would like to see the 3D map and grid_map. If False, nothing is published at /esc_move_base_mapping/social_grid_map and /esc_move_base_mapping/octomap_map.

• mapping_max_range (double, default: 5.0)

  Maximum distance to generate the 3D map from the obtained depth points.

• odometry_topic (string, default: "/odometry_topic")

• rviz_timer (double, default: 0.0)

  The time delay to publish messages to RViz. Not used if visualize_free_space is False.

• point_cloud_topics (list: string, default: empty)

  List of pointcloud topics used to generate the 3D map.

• point_cloud_frames (list: string, default: empty)

  List of frames from pointcloud topics in order respectively.

• social_agents_topic (string, default: "/pedsim_simulator/simulated_agents")

  Topic with social agents states.

• social_agent_radius (double, default: 0.4)

  Radius considered for the social agents.

• social_relevance_validity_checking (bool, default: False)

  Wether or not it is desired to only consider the relevant agents.

• robot_distance_view_max (double, default: 6.0)

  Maximum distance for the robot to consider social agents.

• robot_distance_view_min (double, default: 1.5)

  Mininum distance for the robot to consider social agents.

• robot_angle_view (double, default: 1.57)

  Maximum angle in which the social agents are considered from the field of view of the robot. Defined in radians.

• robot_velocity_threshold (double, default: 0.3)

  Maximum velocity that the robot can have.

Subscribers

The name of the subscribers' topics are just defined as an example, but they may be configured using the parameters defined before.

• /pedsim_simulator/simulated_agents (pedsim_msgs/AgentStates)

  Position, orientation, velocity and other states of the social agents.

• /pepper/camera/depth/points (sensor_msgs/PointCloud2)

  Depth points from depth camera.

• /pepper/odom_groundtruth (nav_msgs/Odometry)

  Robot odometry (in this case it was Pepper robot).

Publishers

The name of the publishers' topics are just defined as an example, but they may be configured using the parameters defined before.

• /esc_move_base_mapping/octomap_map (visualization_msgs/MarkerArray)

  Visual representation of the 3D map created.

• /esc_move_base_mapping/relevant_agents (pedsim_msgs/AgentStates)

  If parameter social_relevance_validity_checking is true, then only the filtered relevant agents are published. Otherwise, all agents are re-published.

• /esc_move_base_mapping/social_grid_map (grid_map_msgs/GridMap)

  Grid map with 2 layers, one for obstacles and another for social agents.

Services

• /esc_move_base_mapping/get_grid_map (grid_map_msgs/GetGridMap)

  Fetches the grid map from the World Modeling.

Online Social Robot Path Planning (esc_move_base_planning)

This package is in charge of finding socially acceptable solution paths for the robot to follow.

Parameters

All of the following parameters have to be defined since they have no default values.

• world_frame (string)

  Main parent frame to be used as reference.

• planner_name (string)

  Planner to be used, can be RRT, RRTstar or PRMstar.

• planning_bounds_x (list: [x_min, x_max])

  Limits for planning in the X axis.

• planning_bounds_y (list: [y_min, y_max])

  Limits for planning in the Y axis.

• dynamic_bounds (bool)

  Whether it is wanted to change the planning bounds dinamically depending on the navigation query.

• start_state (list, [X, Y, Yaw])

  Define start state for navigation query if the action is not going to be used.

• goal_state (list, [X, Y, Yaw])

  Define goal state for navigation query if no action is used.

• timer_period (double)

  Controls the time for sleeps in the node.

• solving_time (double)

  Time given to the planner to solve the navigation query.

• opport_collision_check (bool)

  Whether it is wanted to use opportunistic collision checking or not.

• reuse_last_best_solution (bool)

  Whether it is wanted to apply the reuse of the last best known solution.

• optimization_objective (string)

  Defines which optimization objective to use is desired. Currently, only supported PathLength and ExtendedSocialComfort.

• motion_cost_interpolation (bool)

  If motion cost interpolation is desired.

• xy_goal_tolerance (double)

  Tolerance in the XY axis for the goal state.

• visualize_tree: (bool)

  Whether it is desired to visualize or not the tree generated by the planner.

• grid_map_service (string)

  Service name to get the GridMap.

• control_active_topic (string)

  Topic to communicate with the control module to know when control is ready.

• robot_base_radius (double)

  Radius of the base of the robot to be considered for the planning.

• odometry_topic (string)

• query_goal_topic (string)

  Topic to request a query without using actions.

• goto_action (string)

  Action name to run a navigation query.

Subscribers

The name of the subscribers' topics are just defined as an example, but they may be configured using the parameters defined before.

• /esc_move_base_planner/query_goal (geometry_msgs/PoseStamped)

• /pepper/odom_groundtruth (nav_msgs/Odometry)

  Robot odometry.

• /esc_move_base_mapping/relevant_agents (pedsim_msgs/AgentStates)

  Agents considered by the mapping module.

• /control_active_topic (std_msgs/Bool)

Publishers

The name of the publishers' topics are just defined as an example, but they may be configured using the parameters defined before.

• /esc_move_base_planner/esc_move_base_solution_path (esc_move_base_msgs/Path2D)

  Solution path found by the planner. It is passed to the control module.

• /esc_move_base_planner/esc_num_nodes (std_msgs/Int32)

  Number of valid nodes sampled by the planner.

• /esc_move_base_planner/query_goal_pose_rviz (geometry_msgs/PoseStamped)

  Shows in RViz the query pose requested to the planner.

• /esc_move_base_planner/query_goal_radius_rviz (visualization_msgs/Marker)

  Shows in RViz the radius of the query requested to the planner.

• /esc_move_base_planner/solution_path (visualization_msgs/Marker)

  Visual solution path to be seen in RViz.

Actions

• /goto_action (esc_move_base_msgs/GoTo2D)

  Action to request navigation query. The name of the action server depends on the parameter goto_action.

Path Following Control (esc_move_base_control)

This module is in charge of sending the velocities to the robot according to the path obtained so that the robot goes through that path.

Parameters

• max_vel (double, default: 0.1)

  Maximum velocity the robot can have in the X axis.

• min_vel (double, default: 0.05)

  Minimum velocity for the robot to move in the X axis.

• max_turn_rate (double, default: 0.5)

  Maximum velocity with which the robot can rotate.

• min_turn_rate (double, default: 0.5)

  Minimum velocity for the robot to rotate.

• controller_hz (double, default: 100)

  Frequency in which velocities are sent

• control_path_topic (string, default: "/control_path_topic")

  Topic in which the desired path to follow is published.

• control_output_topic (double, default: "/control_output_topic")

  Topic in which the velocities are published.

• odometry_topic (string, default: "/odometry_topic")

Subscribers

The name of the subscribers' topics are just defined as an example, but they may be configured using the parameters defined before.

• /esc_move_base_planner/esc_move_base_solution_path (esc_move_base_msgs/Path2D)
• /pepper/odom_groundtruth (nav_msgs/Odometry)

Publishers

The name of the publishers' topics are just defined as an example, but they may be configured using the parameters defined before.

• /control_active_topic (std_msgs/Bool)
• /pepper/cmd_vel (geometry_msgs/Twist)

Cite Our Paper

If this navigation framework is used for research or any other work, please make sure to cite our paper with the following bibtex:

@inproceedings{Silva2022,
  author={Silva, Steven and Paillacho, Dennys and Verdezoto, Nervo and Hern{\'{a}}ndez, Juan David},
  booktitle={2022 IEEE 18th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE)},
  title={Towards Online Socially Acceptable Robot Navigation},
  year={2022},
  pages={707-714},
  doi={10.1109/CASE49997.2022.9926686},
  url = {10.1109/CASE49997.2022.9926686},
  isbn = {9781665490429},
}