First steps

After installing or building from sources, you are ready to test the simulator to get used to MVSIM.

Launch it

We will launch a demo with a Jackal mobile robot in a warehouse. The commands required to launch it depends on the installation method:

If you installed MVSim as a ROS 1 package, just run:

roslaunch mvsim ros1_warehouse.launch

If you installed MVSim as a ROS 2 package, just run:

ros2 launch mvsim demo_warehouse.launch.py

Assuming you compiled MVSim in the directory MVSIM_ROOT, with cmake build directory build-Release, run:

cd MVSIM_ROOT
build-Release/bin/mvsim launch mvsim_tutorial/demo_warehouse.world.xml

You should see the GUI of a demo world with a robot equipped with a 3D lidar and, if using the ROS version, an RViz window with a visualization of some of the the published sensor topics.

Move it

If you are running MVSim as a ROS node, you can launch any standard teleoperation node and send motion commands to /cmd_vel as with any other robot or simulator.

If you want to use the teleop panel in rviz2, please install visualization_tutorials.

cd ros2_ws/src
git clone -b ros2 https://github.com/ros-visualization/visualization_tutorials
colcon build --symlink-install

Additionally, MVSim allows you to move the robot directly using the keyboard or a joystick. Make sure of giving the focus to the MVSim window first, then use these keys:

  • w/s to increase/decrease the PI controller setpoint linear speed, and

  • a/d to change the corresponding angular speed, that is, rotate to the left and right.

  • Use the spacebar as a brake.

  • In worlds with more than one robot, select the active robot by pressing the numeric keys 1, 2, etc.

All the details on keyboard and joystick-based control are listed here.

Next, you can jump straight into the many other demo worlds and launch files available under mvsim_tutorial, or continue reading these docs to better understand them.