ROS 2 Humble 3D SLAM Rover

This is a ROS 2 Humble project to run a 3D SLAM simulation in Gazebo.

The project configures a differential drive rover with a virtual Intel RealSense D435 depth camera and an IMU.
It is set up to launch rtabmap_ros for 3D mapping and visualize the results in RViz.

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🛠️ Installation

1. Install ROS 2 Dependencies

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ros-humble-rtabmap-ros ros-humble-teleop-twist-keyboard ros-humble-xacro

2. Build the Workspace

From the root of the workspace (~/ros2_workspace2):

rm -rf build install log
colcon build

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🚀 How to Run (Current State)

You must run each command in a separate, sourced terminal.

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🧩 Terminal 1: Launch Gazebo + RViz (This will fail)

This terminal attempts to start Gazebo, RViz, and the robot state publisher.
It will fail with the /spawn_entity timeout error.

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
cd ~/ros2_workspace2
source install/setup.bash
ros2 launch rover 2_gazebo.launch.py

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🧭 Terminal 2: Launch SLAM Node

This terminal runs the rtabmap SLAM node in the background.

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
cd ~/ros2_workspace2
source install/setup.bash
ros2 launch rover slam.launch.py

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🎮 Terminal 3: Launch Teleop (Keyboard Control)

This terminal runs the keyboard controller.

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
cd ~/ros2_workspace2
source install/setup.bash
ros2 run rover avoid_obstacle

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🎮 Terminal 4: Obstical Avoidance Script

This terminal runs the avoid_obstacle.

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
cd ~/ros2_workspace2
source install/setup.bash
ros2 run teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard

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🧱 RViz Configuration (If Gazebo Worked)

If the simulation were running, you would configure RViz as follows:

• Fixed Frame: map (in Global Options)
• Add 3D Map: Add a PointCloud2 display with the topic /rtabmap/cloud_map
• Add Robot Path: Add a Path display with the topic /local_path
• Add Robot Model: Add a RobotModel display

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📦 Package Components

File / Directory	Description
urdf/rover.urdf	The robot's description file, containing links, joints, and Gazebo plugins for the differential drive, IMU, and RealSense D435.
launch/2_gazebo.launch.py	The main simulation launch file. Starts Gazebo, robot_state_publisher, the robot spawner, and RViz. (Currently failing)
launch/slam.launch.py	The SLAM launch file. Includes the official rtabmap.launch.py and passes all necessary parameters and topic remappings to it.

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⚙️ Summary

This project demonstrates how to set up a 3D SLAM rover simulation in ROS 2 Humble using Gazebo, RTAB-Map, and RViz.
Currently, the Gazebo portion is non-functional, and further debugging is required to resolve the /spawn_entity timeout issue.