The ViVae simulator was developed on CTU in Prague by Computational Intelligence Group.

This simulator was equipped with a ROS interface for the main purpose of use in the Nengoros neural simulator.

Now, the simulation can be controlled over the ROS network.

Author of the interface: Jaroslav Vitku.

This project consists of two parts: simulator and plugin. Simulator implements the vivae simulator and its ROS communication interface, while the Plugin implements integration with the Nengoros simulator (Neural Module, communication utilities etc.).

Start the 'vivae.ros.simulator.server.SimulatorServer' as a ROS node, then it provides services ( @see messages in vivae/ros/vivae). These services are:

• SimController.srv:

  init,start,stop,destroy,reset,setvisible,setinvisible

• LoadMap.srv

  pass the string with the path to map

• Spawn.srv

  spawns new agent in the environment (spawns agents until the number all agents placed in the map are connected)

• Kill.srv

  kills an agent connected to the simulator

Agents are then controlled by the message of type Velocity.msg.

Start a class that implements vivae.ros.simulator.client.SynchronousSimulationClient, e.g. vivae.ros.simulator.client.demo.basic.MySynchronousClient. This node can initialize the ViVae simulation over the ROS network (e.g. from the Nengoros simulator) and control it.

Spawn agents and control them. TODO: describe this more.

To run the demo, which will start the Simulation Server and Simulation Client which will initialize the simulation, do the following:

1. Start the ROS core, e.g.:

   cd jroscore && ./jroscore

2. Start the simulation server:

   ./run vivae.ros.simulator.server.SimulatorServer

3. Start the demo simulation client, which will request loading the map and run the simulation for several seconds:

   ./run vivae.ros.simulator.client.demo.basic.MySynchronousClient

1. Reloading Vivae window on reset:

   • while resetting the simulation: (several times when openning the Nengo interactive window) the simulator is entirely reloaded

   • error: -set in vivaeneuralmodule method "reset" to call only start/stop requests on vivae -launch nengo, launch vivae and connect agent in the simulator, open interactive window and start script (agent moves slowly and unresponsively) -call vivae.reset(), agent moves much faster and signal is better

2. SimulatorServer launched from GUI does not want to register all agents on the first attempt on Ubuntu Linux. After deleting the Vivae node from the Nengo GUI and dragging into the network again will solve the issue.