OtterROS

The OtterROS paper is available on arXiv: OtterROS: Picking and Programming an Uncrewed Surface Vessel for Experimental Field Robotics Research with ROS 2.

Overview

OtterROS is a suite of ROS 2 packages for the Maritime Robotics Otter USV, including the core otter_ros interface package that enables ROS 2 on the Otter USV. Created for robotics research purposes by Offroad Robotics at Queen's University.

The Otter ROS package has been developed and tested on ROS 2 Foxy Fitzroy and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

If you have any questions, please create an issue or reach out to the team at Offroad Robotics.

Creators: Riley Cooper, Sabrina Button, Thomas Sears, and Joshua Marshall.

Affiliation: Offroad Robotics is a member of the Ingenuity Labs Research Institute at Queen's University.

Keywords: otter usv, maritime robotics, ros2, python, nmea, navigation, control

Acknowledgements

Development of OtterROS included field tests within the traditional territories of the Anishinabee, Mississauga, Algonquin, Haudenosaunee, and Huron-Wendat.

Funding

This project was funded in part by the NSERC Canadian Robotics Network (NCRN) under NSERC project NETGP 508451-17, the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships program, and Queen’s University’s USSRF program. The Otter USV was purchased with generous support from the Ingenuity Labs Research Institute’s Research Equipment Fund.

Referencing OtterROS

The first release was accompanied by a paper accepted at the Workshop on Field Robotics at ICRA 2024. If you use OtterROS in your research or published works, please use the following citation so we can see what other users are up to!

@inproceedings{sears2024otterros,
  title     = {{OtterROS}: Picking and Programming an Uncrewed Surface Vessel for Experimental Field Robotics Research with {ROS 2}},
  author    = {Thomas M. C. Sears, M. Riley Cooper, Sabrina R. Button, and Joshua A. Marshall},
  booktitle = {{IEEE} {ICRA} Workshop on Field Robotics},
  year      = {2024}
}

Package Directory

otter_ros

This is the main package of OtterROS. It establishes the interface between the back seat driver architecture of the Otter USV and ROS 2.

This is a required package.

otter_msgs

This interface (i.e., message) package is needed to use otter_ros. It defines custom message structures that simplify using the Otter in ROS 2.

This is a required package.

otter_control

This package is for external command and control of the Otter through ROS.

This is an optional package.

Installation

Dependencies

Required:

• Robot Operating System 2 (ROS 2) (Originally developed for "Foxy Fotzroy")

Optional:

• Velodyne driver: Velodyne Puck (VLP-16) LiDAR
• SBG ROS 2 driver: SBG Ellipse-D IMU

Building

To build from source, clone the latest version from this repository into your ROS 2 workspace, source ROS 2, and compile the package using:

cd ros2_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/offroad-robotics/otter_ros.git
cd ../
rosdep install --from-paths . --ignore-src
colcon build --symlink-install

Usage

After build, source ros2_ws, then start the core functions of otter_ros:

source ros2_ws/install/local_setup.bash
ros2 launch otter_ros otter_base_launch.py

See individual OtterROS packages for explanations and example usage of lower level functions.

Bugs & Feature Requests

Please report bugs and request features using the Issue Tracker.