So far Sphinx is based on Gazebo, so in some way, everything that works for Gazebo should work for Sphinx. However, I have experienced myself that Sphinx loads slower for some Gazebo world configurations.
For example, given that $GAZEBO_ROOT points to the gazebo root folder and $SPHINX_ROOT works in a similar manner, when running sphinx $GAZEBO_ROOT/worlds/robocup_3Dsim.world $SPHINX_ROOT/drones/bebop2.drone, the script prints [Err] [Node.cc:106] No namespace found for a ~10s, then the Gazebo world boots.
However, when running worlds inside $SPHINX_ROOT/worlds instead of $GAZEBO_ROOT/worlds, these load in no time and show no errors tipically.
Then, how can I create a new world / extend from an existing one following Sphinx’s design?
The issue here is that robocup_3Dsim.world contains models that are not locally available and must therefore be dowloaded from Parrot server and copied into ~/.gazebo/models during the first launch. The second time you launch sphinx should be much faster with the same world because the models it contains already exist locally.
Yep, that’s correct. However, my intentions were not only to run X world, but to be able to create and model Sphinx worlds in the easiest way possible.
To this end, I’ve come up with a “somewhat simple” way to replicate situations in a simulated world:
I run Gazebo (not Sphinx) and create a world configuration, by taking advantage of the huuuuge model library that Sphinx gives (thanks for that guys ). It’s important to store this configuration in a .world file
However, Sphinx predefined worlds don’t use the same SDF structure as original Gazebo ones. Thus, by making use of a world template I populate it with the previously-stored world configuration, basically adapting the world to the Sphinx format.
Note: This is easier as Sphinx syntax to define object models only include an URI, a name and a pose.
This should be fine as to run the world with a drone. Moreover, if you want to add a pedestrian actor, it’s also fairly easy: a simple name pointer to the object works for defining the next goal the actor will take. For the sake of providing an example, here you have a world and a path to deploy an actor.
Hey, if you have more expertise at configuring your world, don’t mind to share some advice (or even your world creations ); that’d be awesome!
). It’s important to store this configuration in a .world file
); that’d be awesome!