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Running Blue in Simulation

This tutorial describes how to launch an implemented vehicle in Gazebo with the Gazebo hydrodynamics plugins. Our tests have found that Gazebo provides a good representation of underwater vehicle dynamics. Alternative, untested underwater simulation options that can be used with ROS 2 include:

We recommend exploring each simulation option to determine what best fits your project's needs.

Dependencies​

This tutorial has the following dependencies:

  • Gazebo Harmonic or newer
  • ardusub_driver (for use with the BlueROV2 vehicle models)

These dependencies will be met by default if you have installed Blue with Docker as described in the installation instructions.

Tutorial steps​

To launch a supported vehicle in Gazebo, run the following command:

ros2 launch blue_bringup <model-name>.launch.yaml use_sim:=true

where <model-name> should be replaced with the name of the desired vehicle. For instance, to launch Gazebo using the BlueROV2, run

ros2 launch blue_bringup bluerov2.launch.yaml use_sim:=true

This should bringup Gazebo, ArduSub, and MAVROS. To test that the BlueROV2 has been launched correctly, try changing the ArduSub flight mode by running the following command in a new terminal:

ros2 service call /mavros/set_mode mavros_msgs/srv/SetMode "{base_mode: 0, custom_mode: 'STABILIZE'}"

which, if successful, should change the flight mode to STABILIZE.