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Quick Start Demo

Below you can find instructions on how to setup the semi-automatic demo of AUT-DT simulation made possible with Autoware and AWSIM. The instruction assumes using the Ubuntu OS.

Demo configuration

The simulation provided in the AUT-DT demo is configured as follows:

AUT-DT Demo Settings
Environment Amirkabir University of Technology, Rasht Street
Sensors OS1:64 LiDAR * 1
3D Detection Model TensorRT Centerpoint fp32
Data Association Solver muSSP
Main Tracker EKF
ROS2 humble
Autoware digital_twin branch

PC specs

Please make sure that your machine meets the following requirements in order to run the simulation correctly:

Required PC Specs
OS Ubuntu 22.04
CPU 6cores and 12thread or higher
GPU RTX 20 Series or higher
Nvidia Driver (Windows) >=472.50
Nvidia Driver (Ubuntu 22) >=515.43.04

Localhost settings

The simulation is based on the appropriate network setting, which allows for trouble-free communication of the AWSIM simulation with the Autoware software. To apply required localhost settings please add the following lines to ~/.bashrc file.

export ROS_LOCALHOST_ONLY=1
export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_cyclonedds_cpp

if [ ! -e /tmp/cycloneDDS_configured ]; then
    sudo sysctl -w net.core.rmem_max=2147483647
    sudo ip link set lo multicast on
    touch /tmp/cycloneDDS_configured
fi

Start the demo

Running the AUT-DT simulation demo

To run the simulator, please follow the steps below.

  1. Install Nvidia GPU driver (Skip if already installed).

    1. Add Nvidia driver to apt repository 
      sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
sudo apt update
    2. Install the recommended version of the driver. 
      sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall
    3. Reboot your machine to make the installed driver detected by the system. 
      sudo reboot
    4. Open terminal and check if nvidia-smi command is available and outputs summary similar to the one presented below. 
      $ nvidia-smi 
Sat Nov 25 14:47:51 2023       
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 545.23.08    Driver Version: 545.23.08    CUDA Version: 12.3     |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name        Persistence-M| Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp  Perf  Pwr:Usage/Cap|         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                               |                      |               MIG M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
|   0  NVIDIA GeForce ...   On  | 00000000:01:00.0 Off |                  N/A |
| N/A%   34C    P0  751W / 115W |   11MiB / 16384MiB   |      0%      Default |
|                               |                      |                  N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                  |
|  GPU   GI   CI        PID   Type   Process name                  GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                   Usage      |
|=============================================================================|
|    0   N/A  N/A      2873      G   /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg                 4MiB  |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

  2. Install Vulkan Graphics Library (Skip if already installed).

    1. Update the environment. 
      sudo apt update
    2. Install the library. 
      sudo apt install libvulkan1

  3. Download and Run AWSIM Amirkabir Scene binary.

    1. Download AUT-DT_v1.0.0.zip.

      Download AWSIM Amirkabir Scene for ubuntu

    2. Unzip the downloaded file.

    3. Make the AWSIM_Amirkabir_Scene.x86_64 file executable.

      Rightclick the AWSIM_Amirkabir_Scene.x86_64 file and check the Execute checkbox

      or execute the command below.

      chmod +x <path to AUT-DT folder>/AWSIM_Amirkabir_Scene.x86_64

    4. Launch AWSIM_Amirkabir_Scene.x86_64. 

      ./<path to AUT-DT folder>/AWSIM_Amirkabir_Scene.x86_64

      Warning

      It may take some time for the application to start the so please wait until image similar to the one presented below is visible in your application window.

Launching Autoware

In order to configure and run the Autoware software with the AWSIM Simulator, please:

  1. Clone Autoware and move to the directory. 
    git clone https://github.com/rzninvo/autoware.git
cd autoware
  2. Switch branche to digital_twin. NOTE: The latest main branch is for ROS 2 humble. 
    git checkout digital_twin
  3. Configure the environment. (Skip if Autoware environment has been configured before) 
    ./setup-dev-env.sh
  4. Create the src directory and clone external dependent repositories into it. 
    mkdir src
vcs import src < autoware.repos
  5. Install dependent ROS packages. 
    source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
rosdep update
rosdep install -y --from-paths src --ignore-src --rosdistro $ROS_DISTRO
  6. Build the workspace. 
    colcon build --symlink-install --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="-w"

  7. Launch Autoware. 

    source install/setup.bash
ros2 launch autoware_launch digital_twin.launch.xml
    (Optional Launch) For when you have a .pcd map file: 
    source install/setup.bash
ros2 launch autoware_launch digital_twin.launch.xml map_path:=<your mapfile location>

    Warning

    <your mapfile location> must be changed arbitrarily. When specifying the path the ~ operator cannot be used - please specify absolute full path.

Downloading Sample Data Recording

  1. Download Amirkabir_Rasht-Street_Sample_Data_Recording.zip.

    Download Amirkabir Rasht Street Sample Data

  2. Unzip the downloaded file.

  3. (Optional) Make sure the downloaded recordings are not corrupt.
    1. Download Ouster-Studio from Ouster Website.
    2. Run the Ouster-Studio AppImage and play the downloaded recording:
    3. You should be able to see the recording.

Launching AUT-DT's Specific Sample Data Publisher

The recorded sample data of Amirkabir Rasht Street is not calibrated and won't work well with Autoware's perception module. In order to publish it correctly, follow these steps:

  1. Clone Digital-Twin-of-a-Traffic-Scene and move to the directory. 
    git clone https://github.com/rzninvo/Digital-Twin-of-a-Traffic-Scene-Using-RSU-and-AWSIM
cd Digital-Twin-of-a-Traffic-Scene-Using-RSU-and-AWSIM
  2. Build the workspace. 
    colcon build --symlink-install --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="-w"

  3. Launch the publisher. 

    source install/setup.bash
ros2 launch pcap_to_pointcloud2_publisher_py pcap_to_ros_launch.xml pcap_file_path:=<path to Amirkabir_Rasht_Street_Ouster-OS1-Sample_Data.pcap> pcap_metadata_path:=<path to 20231011_0630_OS-1-64_992006000018.json> aut_dt:=true publish_intensity:=false

    Warning

    pcap_file_path and pcap_metadata_path must be changed arbitrarily. When specifying the path the ~ operator cannot be used - please specify absolute full path.

    Info

    (Optional) You can change the publish_intensity parameter to true for better visualization. The aut_dt parameter is only used for Amirkabir Rasht Street Sample Data, turn it to false for other sample data.

  4. (Optional) Launch rviz2 in a new terminal. 

    rviz2

  5. (Optional) Set the Fixed Frame to base_link. Add the published PointCloud2 topic by clicking on the Add button and finding the topic.

  6. (Optional) Set the Style to Points and you should be able to see the published calibrated sample data on the /sensing/lidar/concatenated/pointcloud topic.

    Info

    If your published PointCloud2 is all white, it's because of the publish_intensity launch file parameter being false.

Let's run the AUT-DT simulation

  1. Before launching AWSIM and Autoware, open two seperate terminals and write these two commands:

    1. Run the static transform publisher for the map and viewer (rviz2 viewer frame): 
      ros2 run tf2_ros static_transform_publisher 0 0 0 0 0 0 map viewer

    2. Run the static transform publisher for the map and base_link (lidar coordinate frame): 

      ros2 run tf2_ros static_transform_publisher 0 0 0 0 0 0 map base_link

      Warning

      The AUT-DT simulation won't work without these two commands. Also remember to run these commands before launching Autoware.

      Info

      For more information on static transform publishers, visit this link:
      https://docs.ros.org/en/foxy/Tutorials/Intermediate/Tf2/Writing-A-Tf2-Static-Broadcaster-Py.html.
      You can change the transform vectors based on your sample data (if your sample data is not calibrated).

  2. Launch the AWSIM Amirkabir Scene by following the previous steps.

  3. Launch the Autoware Digital Twin by following the previous steps.
  4. Launch the Amirkabir Sample Data Publisher by following the previous steps
  5. You should be able to see the real-time detection happening in Autoware's rviz2 panel. (Optional) You can enable the Sensing Module to see the original published PointCloud2.
  6. You should be able to see the real-time simulation in the AWSIM_Amirkabir_Scene.x86_64 runtime.

You have successfuly launched the AUT-DT demo!

6. Troubleshooting

In case of any problems with running the sample AWSIM binary with Autoware, start with checking our Troubleshooting page with the most common problems.