vsss_sim

A simple ROS 2 simulation built for the IEEE VSSS competition.

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Docker support for development environment

If you wish to set up a Docker container to develop or automate commands in isolated environments, please refer to docker

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📦 Dependencies

First, make sure your system is up to date:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Then, navigate to your ROS 2 workspace directory (replace your_ws with your actual workspace name):

cd ~/your_ws

Run the following to install all required dependencies:

rosdep update
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y

This reads the package.xml files in your workspace and installs any missing system dependencies.

🔨 Build and Source

Inside your workspace root (~/your_ws), build the workspace:

colcon build --symlink-install

Then, source it:

source install/setup.bash

🧭 Launch Simulation

To start the Gazebo simulation (robot + field + overhead camera), run:

ros2 launch vsss_simulation simulation_spawn.launch.py 

📷 View the Camera Feed

To view the camera's point of view, use rqt_image_view:

ros2 run rqt_image_view rqt_image_view

Or you can use the topi /camera/image_raw

🛞 How to move the robot

The robot uses internally the diff_drive gazebo tags to perform the differential motion in its motors. In order to communicate with the driver, use the cmd_vel topic

A simple example to publish velocities to the robot's controller is to activate the teleop_twist_keyboard executable

ros2 run teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard

🛠️ Notes

Feel free to modify or extend this package to fit your specific simulation needs.