Fetch navigation performs poorly in Melodic simulation

[nickswalker]

Steps
With up to date versions of fetch_ros and fetch_gazebo

roslaunch fetch_gazebo playground.launch

And

roslaunch fetch_gazeo_demo fetch_nav.launch 

Behavior
When given a nav goal, the robot's localization drifts quickly (seems like it happens during rotation). The robot is never able to reach the goal.

https://youtu.be/w1y0b5aI3o8

Nothing jumps out from the standard move_base configurations so I'm not sure what's going on.

[moriarty]

Thanks, we'll take a look.

FYI:
@velveteenrobot, @cjds @erelson & @narora1

[moriarty]

@nickswalker sorry for the delay everyone I originally tagged has been busy.

I've just spoken with @safrimus and he'll investigate.
I've also created an internal JIRA ticket in hopes of not loosing track of this issue again.
https://fetchrobotics.atlassian.net/browse/OPEN-31

[cjds]

@nickswalker to clarify this only happens with melodic? and Gazebo 9?

[nickswalker]

Yes, I have only observed this happening in Melodic with Gazebo 9.

[dbking77]

To me, it looks like its related to localization. Usually when you first localize robot, its particle cloud is pretty spread out the estimated robot position jumps around at bit while the robot figures out where it is. However, usually the particle cloud converges to the correct position, and this jumpiness stops happening. Take a look at the AMCL particle cloud output in RViz (PoseArray type, can't remember what topic is)

…

-Derek

On Wed, Feb 13, 2019 at 11:15 AM Nick Walker ***@***.***> wrote: Yes, I have only observed this happening in Melodic with Gazebo 9. — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <https://github.com/fetchrobotics/fetch_ros/issues/102#issuecomment-463328878>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACS-71lGbQ5oObCJCXbElpyz8--x67j5ks5vNGQ6gaJpZM4aB56a> .

-- *Derek King | **Systems Engineer * *Fetch Robotics, Inc.* 2811 Orchard Parkway <https://maps.google.com/?q=2811+Orchard+Parkway+San+Jose,+CA+95134&entry=gmail&source=g> San Jose, CA 95134 <https://maps.google.com/?q=2811+Orchard+Parkway+San+Jose,+CA+95134&entry=gmail&source=g> dking@fetchrobotics.com <dking@fetchrobotics.com>

[nickswalker]

Here are some clips with AMCL and the localization transforms visualized:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNb0pJbObHA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk4ANbCywUk

I pulled in all the recent Fetch changes and bumped to the latest Melodic sync.

It doesn't seem like the AMCL config, the Fetch Gazebo model, or any other component that might obviously cause localization to drift so quickly was changed between the indigo and melodic releases. But it's eminently reproduceable for me. I have a couple machines now where I can start a fresh workspace, clone everything, run the launch files and observe this behavior.

Let me know if bags would help.

[moriarty]

@nickswalker thanks, @safrimus was also able to reproduce immediately in the simulator following your steps in the original issue.

I haven't seen this on the actual hardware, can you confirm that navigation is working on your fetch running melodic?

[nickswalker]

Yes, navigation has been working fine on the real robot