Corot Project: Multi Robots Task Allocation (MRTA)

The Corot Project, funded by the European Commission Interreg France-Channel-England Program, aims to improve the design of flexible and responsive manufacturing systems involving autonomous Collaborative Robots (CoRoT).

My MRTA project, as a part of the CoRot, is built at the laboratory LINEACT EA 7527 with objective to construct a ROS-Melodic-based system of multiple AGV Robots assembled by MIR100 robot, UR5 robot and Robotiq 2F 140 Gripper. This system is controlled by a supervisor system, which contains a mission planning algorithm developped based on the theory of Genetic Algorithm.

Package overview

• mrta: Algorithm of task allocation to robots
• mir_robot: Metapackage for MIR100 robot
• universal_robot: Metapackage for UR5 robot
• manipulator: Metapackage for the manipulator assembled by UR5 robot and Robotiq 2F 140 gripper
• mm_robot: Metapackage for the mobile manipulator assembled from MIR100 robot, UR5 robot and Robotiq 2F 140 Gripper
• usecase_gazebo: Environment and map of the usecase for Gazebo simulation

Installation

Miniconda environment

• Install Miniconda by following these two links: Miniconda, Instructions

• Create MRTA environment:

conda create -n MRTA python=2.7

• Install required packages:

conda install -c conda-forge rospkg -n MRTA
conda install -c sotte empy -n MRTA
conda install -c conda-forge defusedxml -n MRTA
conda install -c miniconda numpy -n MRTA
conda install -c miniconda pyqtgraph -n MRTA
conda install -c miniconda yaml -n MRTA
conda install -c miniconda pycryptodomex -n MRTA
conda install -c conda-forge python-gnupg -n MRTA
conda install -c conda-forge matplotlib -n MRTA

• Add activation to file .bashrc or file .zshrc:

echo "conda activate MRTA" >> ~/.bashrc
### Or
echo "conda activate MRTA" >> ~/.zshrc

• Add shebang to python files:

#!/home/hvh/miniconda3/envs/MRTA/bin/python

ROS workspace

• Install ROS Melodic by following this link: ROS Melodic

• Creare MRTA workspace:

### Create MRTA_ws
mkdir ~/MRTA_ws
cd ~/MRTA_ws/

### Clone repository into workspace
git clone https://github.com/huynhvuh/multi_robots_task_allocation.git
chmod -R a+rX *

### Use rosdep to install all dependencies
rosdep update
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src --rosdistro melodic -y

### Source-install of "assimp" package to fix error of "failed to import assimp" of "moveit_commander"
conda activate MRTA
git clone https://github.com/assimp/assimp.git
cd ./assimp
mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -G 'Unix Makefiles'
make -j4
cd ..
cd ./port/PyAssimp
python setup.py install

### Build workspace
cd ~/MRTA_ws/
catkin_make

### Echo source to ".bashrc" file
echo "source ~/MRTA_ws/devel/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
### Or to ".zshrc" file
echo "source ~/MRTA_ws/devel/setup.zsh" >> ~/.zshrc

Multi-PC configuration

• On the master PC: Run hostname -I to get the IP address (Ex: 10.191.76.93), then add it to the source file:

### Echo to ".bashrc" file
echo "export ROS_IP=10.191.76.93" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://10.191.76.93:11311" >> ~/.bashrc
### Or to ".zshrc" file
echo "export ROS_IP=10.191.76.93" >> ~/.zshrc
echo "export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://10.191.76.93:11311" >> ~/.zshrc

• On the other PCs: Run hostname -I to get the IP address (Ex: 10.191.76.59), then add it to the source file:

### Echo to ".bashrc" file
echo "export ROS_IP=10.191.76.59" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://10.191.76.93:11311" >> ~/.bashrc
### Or to ".zshrc" file
echo "export ROS_IP=10.191.76.59" >> ~/.zshrc
echo "export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://10.191.76.93:11311" >> ~/.zshrc

Launch simulation

Each of the following command-lines should be run on each PC to maximize the simulation time (but not mandatory). Below is an example of 2 robots:

### Run the simulated usecase
roslaunch usecase_gazebo usecase_world_for_multi_mms.launch paused:="false"  

### Run 2 AGV robots
roslaunch multi_mms indivi_mm.launch robot_name:="robot0" pose_x:="1" pose_y:="1"
roslaunch multi_mms indivi_mm.launch robot_name:="robot`" pose_x:="1" pose_y:="2"

### Run mission planning algorithm (2 products to manufacture)
python ~/MRTA_ws/src/mrta/scripts/MRTA_algorithm.py 

Fix potential errors

• Error [Err] [REST.cc:205] Error in REST request: Inside the file .ignition/fuel/config.yaml, replace url: https://api.ignitionfuel.org by url: https://api.ignitionrobotics.org