ExplORB-SLAM

A package for Active visual SLAM using the structure of the underlying pose-graph.

Code used for the paper "ExplORB-SLAM: Active Visual SLAM Exploiting the Pose-graph Topology", accepted for presentation in the Fifth Iberian Robotics Conference (ROBOT 2022).

Tested by jplaced for Ubuntu 20.04, ROS Noetic.

Contact: jplaced@unizar.es, jjgomez@unizar.es

Citation

Placed, J. A., Gómez-Rodríguez, J. J., Tardós, J. D., & Castellanos, J. A. (2022). ExplORB-SLAM: Active Visual SLAM Exploiting the Pose-graph Topology. In 2022 Fifth Iberian Robotics Conference (ROBOT).

Detected dependencies:

• Eigen
• OpenCV
• Python3
  • Numpy
  • Sklearn
  • Numba
  • OpenCV
• Gazebo
• ROS Noetic
  • rviz
  • turtlebot3_teleop
  • gazebo_ros
  • octomap_ros
  • octomap_rviz_plugins
  • move_base

Dependency Installation Guide (ROS Noetic, Ubuntu 20.04)

Absolutely! Here is a step-by-step installation and setup guide for all the listed dependencies to implement a ROS Noetic project like ExplORB-SLAM or similar. This assumes you are using Ubuntu 20.04 (the standard for ROS Noetic).

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Step-by-Step Installation Guide

1. Update System

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

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2. Install ROS Noetic

• Official Guide

# Setup sources
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list'
sudo apt install curl
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.asc | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt update

# Install ROS Noetic Desktop-Full (includes rviz, turtlebot3_teleop, move_base, etc.)
sudo apt install ros-noetic-desktop-full

# Initialize rosdep
sudo rosdep init
rosdep update

# Add ROS setup to .bashrc
echo "source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

# Install rosinstall tools
sudo apt install python3-rosinstall python3-rosinstall-generator python3-wstool build-essential

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3. Setup Catkin Workspace

mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src
cd ~/catkin_ws/
catkin_make
echo "source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

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4. Install Core Libraries

Eigen

sudo apt install libeigen3-dev

OpenCV

sudo apt install libopencv-dev python3-opencv

Python3

(Ubuntu 20.04 ships with Python3.8 by default)

Numpy, Sklearn, Numba (for Python)

pip3 install numpy scikit-learn numba

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5. Install ROS Packages

rviz, move_base, gazebo_ros, octomap_ros, octomap_rviz_plugins, turtlebot3_teleop

sudo apt install ros-noetic-rviz \
                 ros-noetic-move-base \
                 ros-noetic-gazebo-ros-pkgs \
                 ros-noetic-octomap-ros \
                 ros-noetic-octomap-rviz-plugins \
                 ros-noetic-turtlebot3-teleop

• Tip: Some packages like gazebo_ros come with gazebo_ros-pkgs.

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6. Install Gazebo Simulator

sudo apt install gazebo11

• If you need integration with ROS:

sudo apt install ros-noetic-gazebo-ros-control

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7. Clone/Build Your Project (e.g., ExplORB-SLAM)

cd ~/catkin_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/WhiZTiM/ExplORB-SLAM.git   # replace with the actual repo
cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin_make

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8. (Optional) Setup TurtleBot3 Model Environment

• If using TurtleBot3 for simulation:

echo "export TURTLEBOT3_MODEL=burger" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

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9. Check Installations

# Check ROS packages
roscd rviz
roscd move_base
roscd octomap_ros
roscd gazebo_ros

# Check Python libraries
python3 -c "import numpy, sklearn, numba, cv2; print('All Python libs imported successfully!')"

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10. Run a Quick Test

• Test RViz:

roscore
# In a new terminal:
rviz

• Test Turtlebot3 teleop:

roslaunch turtlebot3_teleop turtlebot3_teleop_key.launch

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Notes:

• Always source your workspace before launching nodes:

  source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash

• Some dependencies (like octomap_ros or gazebo_ros) may require additional ROS environment variables if you use a different workspace or multiple ROS versions.

• If you use Ubuntu 22.04 or ROS2, installation steps and package names will be different.

Building

1. Clone repo:

git clone [https://github.com/JulioPlaced/ExplORBSLAM.git](https://github.com/Lawaries/ExplORB-SLAM-test.git)

2. Build repo:

cd ExplORBSLAM/
catkin build

3. Remember to source the ExplORBSLAM workspace:

source devel/setup.bash

If sourcing doesn't work properly, try

catkin config --no-install
catkin clean --all

and rebuild.

Running

1. Launch the scenario:

AWS house environment:

roslaunch robot_description single_house.launch

Or AWS bookstore environment:

roslaunch robot_description single_bookstore.launch

2. Launch the decision maker

roslaunch decision_maker autonomous_agent.launch