Skip to content

External Libraries

  • Ros2Unity (description, reasons for using, hyperlink)
    • Default message types (short description with location)
    • List of used topics
    • Add custom ROS2 message type [70% Current] (screens)
    • Accessing and filling in message fields (short example - including array)
  • RobotecGPULidar (description, reasons for using, hyperlink)
    • SceneManager Script (description)

ROS 2 For Unity

AWSIM uses Ros2ForUnity module for ROS 2 communication. ROS 2 For Unity is a high-performance communication solution to connect Unity3D and ROS 2 ecosystem in a ROS 2 "native" way.

This document briefly guides you on how to add your custom messages to the simulation. For a detailed description, please see ROS 2 For Unity Readme.

Prerequisites

ROS 2 For Unity depends on a ros2cs - a C## .NET library for ROS 2. You don't have to install it manually, but there are a few prerequisites that must be resolved first.

Please refer to the following prerequisites section for your OS:

Ubuntu prerequisites

Windows prerequisites

Additional required tools:

  • Git

  • Shell:

    bash

    powershell

Default message types

List of used topics

The tables of topics AWSIM publishes and subscribes from can be found below. The list can be extended by the user for the specific use case. To see how to custom messages type for ROS 2, please refer to Add custom ROS 2 message type document.

Publisher list

category topic msg frame_id hz QoS
clock /clock rosgraph_msgs/Clock none 100 Best effort, Volatile, Keep last/1
camera /sensing/camera/traffic_light/camera_info sensor_msgs/CameraInfo traffic_light_left_camera/camera_link 10 Best effort, Volatile, Keep last/1
camera /sensing/camera/traffic_light/image_raw sensor_msgs/Image traffic_light_left_camera/camera_link 10 Best effort, Volatile, Keep last/1
gnss /sensing/gnss/pose geometry_msgs/Pose gnss_link 1 Reliable, Volatile, Keep last/1
gnss /sensing/gnss/pose_with_covariance geometry_msgs/PoseWithCovarianceStamped gnss_link 1 Reliable, Volatile, Keep last/1
imu /sensing/imu/tamagawa/imu_raw sensor_msgs/Imu tamagawa/imu_link 30 Reliable, Volatile, Keep last/1000
lidar /sensing/lidar/top/pointcloud_raw sensor_msgs/PointCloud2 sensor_kit_base_link 10 Best effort, Volatile, Keep last/5
lidar /sensing/lidar/top/pointcloud_raw_ex sensor_msgs/PointCloud2 sensor_kit_base_link 10 Best effort, Volatile, Keep last/5
vehicle status /vehicle/status/control_mode autoware_auto_vehicle_msgs/ControlModeReport none 30 Reliable, Volatile, Keep last/1
vehicle status /vehicle/status/gear_status autoware_auto_vehicle_msgs/GearReport none 30 Reliable, Volatile, Keep last/1
vehicle status /vehicle/status/steering_status autoware_auto_vehicle_msgs/SteeringReport none 30 Reliable, Volatile, Keep last/1
vehicle status /vehicle/status/turn_indicators_status autoware_auto_vehicle_msgs/TurnIndicatorsReport none 30 Reliable, Volatile, Keep last/1
vehicle status /vehicle/status/hazard_lights_status autoware_auto_vehicle_msgs/HazardLightsReport none 30 Reliable, Volatile, Keep last/1
vehicle status /vehicle/status/velocity_status autoware_auto_vehicle_msgs/VehicleReport none 30 Reliable, Volatile, Keep last/1

Subscriber list

category topic msg frame_id hz QoS
control /control/command/turn_indicators_cmd autoware_auto_vehicle_msgs/TurnIndicatorsCommand none 10 Reliable,
TransientLocal,
KeepLast/1
control /control/command/hazard_lights_cmd autoware_auto_vehicle_msgs/HazardLightsCommand none 10 Reliable,
TransientLocal,
KeepLast/1
control /control/command/control_cmd autoware_auto_control_msgs/AckermannControlCommand none 60 Reliable,
TransientLocal,
KeepLast/1
control /control/command/gear_cmd autoware_auto_vehicle_msgs/GearCommand none 10 Reliable,
TransientLocal,
KeepLast/1
control /control/command/emergency_cmd tier4_vehicle_msgs/msg/VehicleEmergencyStamped none 60 Reliable,
TransientLocal,
KeepLast/1

Add custom ROS 2 message type

Assumptions

To include a custom ROS 2 message, you have to build ROS 2 For Unity with your custom message package. The following steps will assume that:

  • the temporary ROS 2 For Unity build folder is located in the home directory

    ~/

    C:\

  • your message package is called custom_msgs and is located under the path:

    ~/custom_msgs

    C:\custom_msgs

    • ROS 2 version is humble (foxy and galactic are also supported, please check the current AWSIM version for more information about its ROS2 version) and is located in

    /opt/ros/humble

    C:\ros2_humble

Workspace preparation

  1. Clone ROS 2 For Unity repository.

    git clone https://github.com/RobotecAI/ros2-for-unity

  2. Pull dependent repositories

    cd ~/ros2-for-unity
. /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
./pull_repositories.sh

    cd C:\ros2-for-unity
C:\ros2_humble\local_setup.ps1
.\pull_repositories.ps1

Setup custom_msgs package

Package hosted on git repository
  1. Open ros2-for-unity/ros2_for_unity_custom_messages.repos file in your favorite editor,

  2. Modify the file contents, so it points to custom_msgs repository by changing <REPOSITORY_URL> to repository address, <BRANCH_NAME> to desired branch and <PACKAGE_NAME> to your local package name representation - in this case custom_msgs. The configured file should look as follows:

    ## NOTE: Use this file if you want to build with custom messages that reside in a separate remote repo.
## NOTE: use the following format

repositories:
    src/ros2cs/custom_messages/<PACKAGE_NAME>:
        type: git
        url: <REPOSITORY_URL>
        version: <BRANCH_NAME>
    3. Now please, pull repositories to download and setup the package:

    ./pull_repositories.sh

    .\pull_repositories.ps1
Package contained on local machine

  1. Simply custom_msgs package to src/ros2cs/custom_messages directory

    cp -r ~/custom_msgs ~/ros2-for-unity/src/ros2cs/custom_messages/

    cp -r ~/custom_msgs ~/ros2-for-unity/src/ros2cs/custom_messages/

Build ROS 2 For Unity

Build ROS 2 For Unity using the following command:

./build.sh --standalone

.\build.ps1 -standalone

Install custom_msgs to AWSIM

New ROS 2 For Unity build, which you just made, contains multiple libraries that already exist in the AWSIM. To install custom_msgs and not copy all other unnecessary files, you should get the custom_msgs related libraries only and copy them to the analogous directories in AWSIM/Assets/Ros2ForUnity.

You can find them in following directories:

  • ros2-for-unity/install/asset/Ros2ForUnity/Plugins which names matches custom_msgs_*
`ros2-for-unity/install/asset/Ros2ForUnity/Plugins/Linux/x86_64/` which names matches `libcustom_msgs_*`

`ros2-for-unity/install/asset/Ros2ForUnity/Plugins/Windows/x86_64/` which names matches `custom_msgs_*`

To automate the process, you can use these commands (change <AWSIM_DIR> to your E2Simulator path and <CUSTOM_MSGS_PACKAGE_NAME> to a custom messages package):

find ~/ros2-for-unity/install/asset/Ros2ForUnity/Plugins -maxdepth 1 -name "<CUSTOM_MSGS_PACKAGE_NAME>*"    -type f -exec cp {} <AWSIM_DIR>/Assets/Ros2ForUnity/Plugins \;
find ~/ros2-for-unity/install/asset/Ros2ForUnity/Plugins/Linux/x86_64 -maxdepth 1 -name     "lib<CUSTOM_MSGS_PACKAGE_NAME>*" -type f -exec cp {} <AWSIM_DIR>/Assets/Ros2ForUnity/Plugins/Linux/x86_64 \;

Get-ChildItem C:\ros2-for-unity\install\asset\Ros2ForUnity\Plugins\* -Include @('<CUSTOM_MSGS_PACKAGE_NAME>*') | Copy-Item -Destination <AWSIM_DIR>\Assets\Ros2ForUnity\Plugins
Get-ChildItem C:\ros2-for-unity\install\asset\Ros2ForUnity\Plugins\Windows\x86_64\* -Include @('<CUSTOM_MSGS_PACKAGE_NAME>*') | Copy-Item -Destination <AWSIM_DIR>\Assets\Ros2ForUnity\Plugins\Windows\x86_64

Accessing and filling in message fields

RobotecGPULidar

Robotec GPU Lidar is an open source high performance lidar simulator running on CUDA-enabled GPUs. It is used because of the performance benefits (calculations happen on the GPU).

RobotecGPULidar can also perform parallelized point cloud calculations e.g. transformations.

SceneManager Script

Scene Manager is a script responsible for synchronizing model data between Unity and RGL.

SceneManager synchronizes 3D model data in time keeping track of what is changing between frames. It obtains 3D models from Game Objects when they are needed and deletes them when they are no longer needed.

This script can obtain 3D model in several different ways from a Game Object:

  1. From active colliders in the Game Object
  2. From mesh in the Game Object
  3. From mesh for non-skinned MeshRenderers and from colliders for SkinnedMeshRenderers