F1TENTH autonomous grand prix (ICRA'23 London) - ForzaETH

Procedure

Precheck:

• Check the correct branch is used (master)
• Fully charged Battery plugged in
• Controller sufficiently charged and laying next to launch pc
• No wires in the way, battery is firmly positioned
• Car placed at a good position to start mapping (e.g. in the center of the track)
• Chosen NUC and controller are turned on
• Check that everybody is at their correct position:
  [Mapping_MissionControl]: at the launch pc
  [Control_MissionControl]: at the launch pc
• Launch pc connected to a secondary display (e.g. monitor)
• In the config file stack_master/config/global_planner_params.yaml, check: The safety_width and safety_width_sp (should be at least 0.7)

Setup:

1. Open a terminal and ssh into the car. catkin build and sauce
2. Open a terminal on your local pc. Open rviz and move it on the secondary display

   pit_rvizX
   

Map with Mapping [Mapping_MissionControl]

If you have a clear racetrack, you can map with mapping

1. Launch mapping with:

   roslaunch stack_master mapping.launch racecar_version:=NUCX map_name:=PLACE_DAYMONTH_VN
   

   • Replace PLACE with the place where the track is, e.g. icra or hangar
   • Replace DAYMONTH with the zero-padded current day, e.g. 2805 if it is the 28th of may
   • Replace VN with the version of the map, e.g. v0 if it is the first version of the map on that day
2. Drive at least one lap, using the automatic driving button (R1).
3. After one completed lap you will be asked if the map is good enough.
   • Press y if the map looks good (clear trackbounds, no shifts)
   • Check if the waypoints were computed and the markers of the trackbounds look fine. Otherwise, kill everything and start over from 1.

Note: if the car does not prompt you to press y maybe the loop closure failed. Drive another lap manually

4. If it does not work, use Map Editor

Map with Map_Editor [Mapping_MissionControl]

If you have problems with getting a correct map (gaps in the racetrack or other cars on the map) or want to adjust the raceline, you can use Map Editor. Prefer using Map Editor on our local machine, especially if the WLAN connection is bad.

Create global trajectory [Control_MissionControl]

Depending on whether you chose to use map editor locally or on the car, create the global trajectory according to the Readme.

You might want to make edits to the map to create specific racelines. However, remember that the pf_map should reflect the actual track, while the raceline-specific map can be edited as you wish.

1. Slice the map into sectors with the GUI.
2. Determine the overtaking sectors with the other GUI.
3. Source all terminals freshly!

Copying maps / Renaming maps [Control_MissionControl]

1. Rename the enclosing map folder from OLDNAME to NEWNAME.
2. Inside the folder, rename: OLDNAME.pbstream to NEWNAME.pbstream
3. Inside the folder, rename: OLDNAME.png to NEWNAME.png
4. Inside the folder, rename: OLDNAME.yaml to NEWNAME.yaml
5. Open up the NEWNAME.yaml and inside replace the reference to OLDNAME.png to NEWNAME.png

Verification (on car)

Verify that the map was created correctly by starting the base system with the new map and check if it runs without errors

roslaunch stack_master base_system.launch racecar_version:=<VERSION> map_name:=<map_name>

Congrats, you are done with mapping

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