Skip to content

Mapping surrounding with SLAM

Author

  • TsunOn Kwok
  • Dec 10 2024
  • Mapping surrounding with SLAM

Summary

Brief instructions for how ot mapping a surrounding with SLAM in both real robot and gazebo

Details

To map the surrouding and generate a .yaml world file and a .pgm map, follow these steps:

  1. Bring up the robot in real life or launch you robot and world in gazebo to get started.

  2. Launch SLAM using gmapping by running the following command:

roslaunch turtlebot3_slam turtlebot3_slam.launch slam_methods:=gmapping
Rviz should be automatically opened after the command is typed.

  1. Open a new terminal and run the command: teleop to control the robot with the keyboard. Drive the robot around the target area to scan its surroundings.

  2. Once the entire target area has been scanned, open another terminal and execute the following command to save the map:

rosrun map_server map_saver -f `rospack find <package_name>`/maps/<map_name>
  1. This will generate two files in your Ros package <package_name>/maps: <map_name>.yaml and <map_name>.pgm.

Things to notice

  • In gazebo, due to lagging and its poor accuary, the SLAM mapping is very unaccuary. For any world over 10x10 meters, the SLAM mapping is unusable. It is highly remmcomended that you keep the world as small as poposible in gazebo. Our gazebo world is 5x5 meters.

  • Adjust SLAM Parameters: Modify parameters like linearUpdate, angularUpdate, and particles in the gmapping configuration file to suit your robot and environment.