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Gazebo Plugin Intro

catkin rosbuild

Install ROS

Install the simulator_gazebo stack.

Create a Gazebo Plugin

Create a ROS package in a scratch workspace and add its path to `ROS_PACKAGE_PATH

$ roscreate-pkg gazebo_tutorials gazebo

$ catkin_create-pkg gazebo_tutorials gazebo

export ROS_PACKAGE_PATH=${ROS_PACKAGE_PATH}:`pwd`

Create a very simple plugin as described here and save the file as gazebo_tutorials/src/simple_world_plugin.cpp:

#include "gazebo.hh"
#include "common/common.h"
#include <stdio.h>

namespace gazebo
{
  class HelloWorld : public WorldPlugin
  {
    public: HelloWorld() : WorldPlugin() 
            {
              printf("Hello World!\n");
            }

    public: void Load(physics::WorldPtr _world, sdf::ElementPtr _sdf)
            {
            };

  };
  GZ_REGISTER_WORLD_PLUGIN(HelloWorld)
}

Update gazebo_tutorials/CMakeLists.txt by adding the following lines:

rosbuild_add_library(gazebo_tutorials src/simple_world_plugin.cpp)

add_executable(gazebo_tutorials src/simple_world_plugin.cpp)
target_link_libraries(gazebo_tutorials ${catkin_LIBRARIES})

Update gazebo_tutorials/manifest.txt by adding the following block:

  <export>
    <gazebo plugin_path="${prefix}/lib" gazebo_media_path="${prefix}" />
  </export>

Compiling the Plugin

rosmake gazebo_tutorials

Creating a World file

Save the following file as gazebo_tutorials/worlds/hello.world:

<?xml version="1.0"?> 
<gazebo version="1.0">
  <world name="default">
    <!-- A ground plane -->
    <include filename="ground_plane.model"/>

    <!-- A global light source -->
    <include filename="sun.light"/>

    <!-- reference to your plugin -->
    <plugin name="gazebo_tutorials" filename="libgazebo_tutorials.so"/>
  </world>
</gazebo>

Running the plugin

Create the following launch file gazebo_tutorials/launch/hello.launch:

<launch>
  <!-- set use_sim_time flag -->
  <param name="/use_sim_time" value="true" />
  <node name="gazebo" pkg="gazebo" type="gazebo" args="$(find gazebo_tutorials)/worlds/hello.world" respawn="false" output="screen"/>
  <node name="gazebo_gui" pkg="gazebo" type="gui" respawn="false" output="screen"/>
</launch>

and finally,

roslaunch gazebo_tutorials hello.launch