Connecting to the Duckiematrix#

It is possible to connect a virtual Duckiebot to a respective Duckiebot entity in the Duckiematrix. This allows to test in a photorealistic simulation the entire stack of the Duckiebot, allowing for integration testing of developed ROS nodes or custom Docker images.

Attention

Make sure that the shell is using an ente profile.

1. Start the virtual robot#

The first step is to start the virtual robot by executing:

dts duckiebot virtual start ENTITY_NAME

You can find a list of all the virtual duckiebots with the command

dts duckiebot virtual list

2. Starting the Duckiematrix#

In order to attach the virtual Duckiebot to the Duckiematrix we need to know how to reach the latter. To obtain the IP address of the Duckiematrix you can start it with the --verbose flag:

dts matrix run --standalone --sandbox --verbose

In this case we are running the matrix in the standalone mode (both engine and renderer) and using the sandbox map. Once the Duckiematrix has started there will be a list of different IP addresses where it is reachable and the respective networks it can be reached from. Since the ROS containers on the Duckiebot are connected to their own Docker network we need to use the Duckiematrix IP address that is reachable from the local network, labeled (local network only):

INFO:duckiematrix:The Engine can be reached at any of these IP addresses:

	 -  127.0.0.1         	(local machine only)
	 -  192.168.1.20      	(local network only)
	 -  172.17.0.1        	(local machine only)
	 -  172.21.0.1

In this case we would pick the IP address 192.168.1.20. If you want to run an engine in a different machine than the one your virtual duckiebot will be running on look at Launch a Remote Engine.

3. Attaching the virtual duckiebot to the matrix#

To attach the virtual duckiebot to a matrix entity we need to know:

  • ENGINE_HOSTNAME: the IP address/hostname where the Duckiematrix is reachable at.

  • VIRTUAL_ROBOT_NAME : the name of the virtual Duckiebot we want to attach

  • ENTITY_NAME : The entity of the Duckiematrix we want to attach to.

Then we can execute:

dts matrix attach [-e ENGINE_HOSTNAME] VIRTUAL_ROBOT_NAME ENTITY_NAME

taking care of replacing the parameters with the correct values.

4. Connect to the virtual Duckiebot#

The virtual Duckiebot now will behave just as a real one would (depending on the supported features, see Implementation status ). For example you can connect to it through ssh as:

ssh duckie@VIRTUAL_ROBOT_NAME

or control it with a Joystick using dts duckiebot keyboard_control VIRTUAL_ROBOT_NAME.

Try running a virtual lane following by following the instructions in Duckiebot lane following (LF) demo!