How to Install CoppeliaSim 4.1.0 in Ubuntu 16.04 with ROS Bridge and the Velodyne plugin

COPPELIA_4.1.0_UBUNTU_16.04.md

How to Install CoppeliaSim 4.1.0 in Ubuntu 16.04 with ROS Bridge and the Velodyne plugin

Install Tutorial Coppeliasim - Espeleo Simulation

• 1 - Download CoppeliaSim V4.1.0 for Ubuntu 16.04 (https://coppeliarobotics.com/files/CoppeliaSim_Edu_V4_1_0_Ubuntu16_04.tar.xz). Unzip into a suitable folder.

    $ wget -P /tmp https://coppeliarobotics.com/files/CoppeliaSim_Edu_V4_1_0_Ubuntu16_04.tar.xz
    $ cd /tmp && tar -xvf CoppeliaSim_Edu_V4_1_0_Ubuntu16_04.tar.xz
    $ mv CoppeliaSim_Edu_V4_1_0_Ubuntu16_04 ~/
  

• 2 - Prepare ".bashrc" for CoppeliaSim:

    $ echo 'export COPPELIASIM_ROOT_DIR="$HOME/CoppeliaSim_Edu_V4_1_0_Ubuntu16_04"' >> ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc
    $ echo 'alias coppelia="$COPPELIASIM_ROOT_DIR/coppeliaSim.sh"' >> ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc
  

• 3 - Test if the program is working on terminal by:

    $ coppelia
  

  If everything went well, you must be greeted by the CoppeliaSim simulator main window!

• 4 - Go to your catkin workspace source folder ("~/catkin_ws/src/") and clone recursively the plugin repository. Note: the simExtROSInterface that works with Ubuntu 16.04 is the coppeliasim-v4.0.0 branch. Until now, we have seen no problems.

    $ cd ~/catkin_ws/src/
    $ git clone https://github.com/CoppeliaRobotics/simExtROSInterface --branch coppeliasim-v4.0.0
  

• 5 - Fix a python requirement that is broken in CoppeliaSim 4.1.0:

    $ cd $COPPELIASIM_ROOT_DIR/programming
    $ rm -rf libPlugin
    $ git clone https://github.com/CoppeliaRobotics/libPlugin.git
    $ cd libPlugin
    $ git checkout 1e5167079b84ca002a6197414d51c40eda583d01
  

• 6 - Install the support packages:

    $ sudo apt-get install -y python-catkin-tools xsltproc ros-$ROS_DISTRO-brics-actuator ros-$ROS_DISTRO-tf2-sensor-msgs		
  

• 7 - Use "catkin build" to compile your packages. To do so, you must "catkin clean", then "catkin build"

    $ cd ~/catkin_ws
    $ catkin clean -y && catkin build
  

• 8 - If your compilation finished succesfully, the library "libv_repExtRosInterface.so" compiled correctly. This library makes CoppeliaSim recognize the ROS enviroment in your machine. Now, copy this library to the CoppeliaSim directory:

    $ cp ~/catkin_ws/devel/lib/libsimExtROSInterface.so $COPPELIASIM_ROOT_DIR
  

• 9 - It's necessary to install the package Coppeliasim Plugin Velodyne which is responsible for publishing the velodyne point cloud from a C++ plugin, increasing the simulation performance.

    $ cd ~/catkin_ws/src/ && git clone https://github.com/ITVRoC/coppeliasim_plugin_velodyne.git
    $ cd ~/catkin_ws && catkin build
    $ cp ~/catkin_ws/devel/.private/coppeliasim_plugin_velodyne/lib/libv_repExtRosVelodyne.so $COPPELIASIM_ROOT_DIR
  

  The scenes in this repository already have the other configurations. If you want to create a new scene with the plugin follow the steps of the link - https://github.com/ITVRoC/coppeliasim_plugin_velodyne.

• 10 - Everything is ready to run. To test the communication, run the ROS master:

    $ roscore
  

• 11 - Now run CoppeliaSim:

    $ coppelia
  

Note that there are multiple init messages from CoppeliaSim on terminal. An indication that your library was compiled correctly is the following message:

		Plugin 'RosInterface': loading...
		Plugin 'RosInterface': warning: replaced variable 'simROS'
		Plugin 'RosInterface': load succeeded.

• 12 - To confirm the interaction between ROS and CoppeliaSim, play the empty scene in the begin of the program. In other terminal type:

    $ rostopic list
  

  If the topic "/tf" appears, the ROS/CoppeliaSim is enabled and functional.