Light Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (LAUV) model for Gazebo

Link to the lauv_gazebo repository here

Link to the documentation page

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This repository contains the robot description and necessary launch files to simulate the Light Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (LAUV), developed by the Laboratório de Sistemas e Tecnologia Subaquática (LSTS) from Porto University and OceanScan-MST. This repository is complementary to the Unmanned Underwater Vehicle Simulator (UUV Simulator), an open-source project extending the simulation capabilities of the robotics simulator Gazebo to underwater vehicles and environments. For installation and usage instructions, please refer to the documentation pages. The information about the vehicle dynamic model and physical dimensions were retrieved from the following sources:

• Sousa, Alexandre, et al. “LAUV: The man-portable autonomous underwater vehicle.” IFAC Proceedings Volumes 45.5 (2012): 268-274.
• da Silva, Jorge Estrela, et al. “Modeling and simulation of the LAUV autonomous underwater vehicle.” 13th IEEE IFAC International Conference on Methods and Models in Automation and Robotics. Szczecin, Poland Szczecin, Poland, 2007.

Purpose of the project

This software is a research prototype, originally developed for the EU ECSEL Project 662107 SWARMs.

The software is not ready for production use. However, the license conditions of the applicable Open Source licenses allow you to adapt the software to your needs. Before using it in a safety relevant setting, make sure that the software fulfills your requirements and adjust it according to any applicable safety standards (e.g. ISO 26262).

Requirements

To simulate the Light Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (LAUV), please refer to the UUV Simulator repository and follow the installation instructions of the package. Then you can clone this package in the src folder of you catkin workspace

cd ~/catkin_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/uuvsimulator/lauv_gazebo.git

and then build your catkin workspace

cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin_make # or <catkin build>, if you are using catkin_tools

Configuration of the Gazebo world

The simulation with the fin plugins have shown better results by configuring the Gazebo’s .world file with the following parameters for the physics engine:

<physics name="default_physics" default="true" type="ode">
  <max_step_size>0.01</max_step_size>
  <real_time_factor>1</real_time_factor>
  <real_time_update_rate>100</real_time_update_rate>
  <ode>
    <solver>
      <type>quick</type>
      <iters>50</iters>
      <sor>1.2</sor>
    </solver>
  </ode>
</physics>

Check the Mangalia world file to see an example.

License

LAUV Gazebo package is open-sourced under the Apache-2.0 license. See the LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Want to contribute? Great! You can do so through the standard GitHub pull request model. For large contributions we do encourage you to file a ticket in the GitHub issues tracking system prior to any code development to coordinate with the UUV Simulator development team early in the process. Coordinating up front helps to avoid frustration later on.

Your contribution must be licensed under the Apache-2.0 license, the license used by this project.

Add / retain copyright notices

Include a copyright notice and license in each new file to be contributed, consistent with the style used by this project. If your contribution contains code under the copyright of a third party, document its origin, license, and copyright holders.

Sign your work

This project tracks patch provenance and licensing using a modified Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO; from OSDL) and Signed-off-by tags initially developed by the Linux kernel project.

UUV Simulator Developer's Certificate of Origin.  Version 1.0

By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:

(a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
    have the right to submit it under the "Apache License, Version 2.0"
    ("Apache-2.0"); or

(b) The contribution is based upon previous work that is covered by
    an appropriate open source license and I have the right under
    that license to submit that work with modifications, whether
    created in whole or in part by me, under the Apache-2.0 license;
    or

(c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
    person who certified (a) or (b) and I have not modified it.

(d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution
    are public and that a record of the contribution (including all
    metadata and personal information I submit with it, including my
    sign-off) is maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed
    consistent with this project and the requirements of the Apache-2.0
    license or any open source license(s) involved, where they are
    relevant.

(e) I am granting the contribution to this project under the terms of
    Apache-2.0.

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

With the sign-off in a commit message you certify that you authored the patch or otherwise have the right to submit it under an open source license. The procedure is simple: To certify above UUV Simulator Developer’s Certificate of Origin 1.0 for your contribution just append a line

Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.example.org>

to every commit message using your real name or your pseudonym and a valid email address.

If you have set your user.name and user.email git configs you can automatically sign the commit by running the git-commit command with the -s option. There may be multiple sign-offs if more than one developer was involved in authoring the contribution.

For a more detailed description of this procedure, please see SubmittingPatches which was extracted from the Linux kernel project, and which is stored in an external repository.

Individual vs. Corporate Contributors

Often employers or academic institution have ownership over code that is written in certain circumstances, so please do due diligence to ensure that you have the right to submit the code.

If you are a developer who is authorized to contribute to UUV Simulator on behalf of your employer, then please use your corporate email address in the Signed-off-by tag. Otherwise please use a personal email address.

Maintain Copyright holder / Contributor list

Each contributor is responsible for identifying themselves in the NOTICE file, the project’s list of copyright holders and authors. Please add the respective information corresponding to the Signed-off-by tag as part of your first pull request.

If you are a developer who is authorized to contribute to UUV Simulator on behalf of your employer, then add your company / organization to the list of copyright holders in the NOTICE file. As author of a corporate contribution you can also add your name and corporate email address as in the Signed-off-by tag.

If your contribution is covered by this project’s DCO’s clause “(c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other person who certified (a) or (b) and I have not modified it”, please add the appropriate copyright holder(s) to the NOTICE file as part of your contribution.