NASA_Challenge_[Barisyaz]_[Ingenuity Flight Simulator]

[BarisYazici]

This project simulates the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter using Gazebo and ROS 2 in Space-ROS.

closes #67

Aim of this project is to develop tools to mimic the Martian environment as close as possible. This enables space robots to easily iterate over the development cycles. This is important especially for the aerial vehicles. Because the air is much thinner and the nature events are different. Having this in mind, I develop the Ingenuity Flight Simulator, calculating the lift and drag forces as close to the Martian atmosphere and gravity as possible. This could enable Nasa engineers to develop controllers that can react to the nature events or test flight controllers with sensor noise such as IMU, altimeter or Camera.

landing_e27e4Hjz.mp4

cyclic_Bx2v4jKU.mp4

dust-storm-collective_q6O5PUg9.mp4

graph TD
    A[User Input] -->|/alpha_c, /alpha_s| D[Flight Simulation Plugin]
    A -->|/desired_altitude| C[Flight Control Plugin]
    C -->|/angle_of_attack| D
    D -->|LIft/ Drag Forces & Torques| E[Gazebo Physics Engine]
    E -->|Physics Update| F[Ingenuity Model]
    F -->|State Feedback| E
    E -->|Model State| D
    D -->|Telemetry| G[Visualization]
    
    subgraph Gazebo Simulation
    E
    F
    end
    
    subgraph Gazebo Plugins
    C
    D
    end
    
    classDef userInput fill:#f9f,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px;
    classDef gazebo fill:#cfc,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px;
    classDef spaceROS fill:#fcf,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px;
    classDef visualization fill:#ccf,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px;
    
    class A userInput;
    class E,F gazebo;
    class C,D spaceROS;
    class G visual

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[mkhansenbot]

Thanks for the submission, this looks very cool! However, I need you to follow our contribution guidelines and open a new issue for this demo (using our feature request template). Then update both the PR title and the commit message(s) to refer to that issue #. We require every commit to have an associated issue. Also, I've added a workflow to build the build.sh files automatically, so this must build successfully using your script.

[BarisYazici]

Thank you for your feedback. I will update the PR based on your comments. I have some questions and suggestions:

Feature Separation

I have implemented multiple features in this PR:

• Realistic helicopter simulation
• Automatic altitude control with PID for the collective input of simulation
• Realistic Mars environment mesh and rocks
• Mars dust storm simulation
• Sensor support:
  • Altimeter
  • RGB Camera
  • IMU
• Realistic wind support

Would it make sense to separate these into individual issues and reference them in separate commits?

Build Script and Docker Image

Regarding the build script, there's a potential issue with the current workflow. My script relies ‘openrobotics/space_robots_demo’ that comes as an artifact from the docker repo under the space-ros project. To address this, I have two questions:

1. Should I base my Dockerfile on Space-ROS's publicly available Docker image?
2. Is there a plan to make the ‘openrobotics/space_robots_demo’ image I'm currently basing on available on Docker Hub?

[mkhansenbot]

Thank you for your feedback. I will update the PR based on your comments. I have some questions and suggestions:

Feature Separation

I have implemented multiple features in this PR:

* Realistic helicopter simulation

* Automatic altitude control with PID for the collective input of simulation

* Realistic Mars environment mesh and rocks

* Mars dust storm simulation

* Sensor support:
  
  * Altimeter
  * RGB Camera
  * IMU

* Realistic wind support

Would it make sense to separate these into individual issues and reference them in separate commits?
Since this is an all new demo, I don't think that's necessary. Just document what these capabilities are in your README, etc.

Build Script and Docker Image

Regarding the build script, there's a potential issue with the current workflow. My script relies ‘openrobotics/space_robots_demo’ that comes as an artifact from the docker repo under the space-ros project. To address this, I have two questions:

1. Should I base my Dockerfile on Space-ROS's publicly available Docker image?

Yes, please use the space-ros:latest image as a starting point

2. Is there a plan to make the ‘openrobotics/space_robots_demo’ image I'm currently basing on available on Docker Hub?

There's no current plan to do that. For now, you can copy that folder into your workspace and build it. In fact, can you have your build script do that at build time for now? We plan to port that folder into this repo soon anyway, then we can update the build script.

[mkhansenbot]

Thanks for adding the build.sh. This still needs a full review but I'm going to try to run the CI.

Needs code review

[BarisYazici]

Okay I will update it with space-ros docker image. I haven’t pushed anything new yet. Could you also tell me if I should open multiple issues for multiple features or one issue listing multiple features?

[gmacario]

Okay I will update it with space-ros docker image. I haven’t pushed anything new yet. Could you also tell me if I should open multiple issues for multiple features or one issue listing multiple features?

According to @mkhansenbot comment in #39 (comment)

Since this is an all new demo, I don't think that's necessary. Just document what these capabilities are in your README, etc.

[mkhansenbot]

Thanks for your submission, however this doesn't build in our CI, because you're relying on the 'space_robots' docker image, which you're not building. So there are two options:

1. build on the space-ros:latest image only, pull in any assets you need from the space-ros/simulation repo
2. Implement a multi-stage build where you first build the space_robots image then you build yours on top of that

I recommend option 1 if possible, as the space_robots demo will be refactored and moved into this repo later, so it's preferable to remove that dependency if you can

[BarisYazici]

Thanks for your submission, however this doesn't build in our CI, because you're relying on the 'space_robots' docker image, which you're not building. So there are two options:

1. build on the space-ros:latest image only, pull in any assets you need from the space-ros/simulation repo
2. Implement a multi-stage build where you first build the space_robots image then you build yours on top of that

I recommend option 1 if possible, as the space_robots demo will be refactored and moved into this repo later, so it's preferable to remove that dependency if you can

Thanks @mkhansenbot for the update. I updated the dockerfile to be based on space-ros public image and the build script. Workflow should hopefully work now.

[mkhansenbot]

Re-running the build

[mkhansenbot]

Please move the colcon build into the Dockerfile so that we can ensure the build works correctly using CI

[BarisYazici]

I updated the Dockerfile with the colcon build command. Also adjusted the entrypoint.sh such that it directly start the launch file.

This still needs a full code review

[ana-GT]

Just as a heads-up: I gave a shot to use this PR in Jazzy. Needed a few tweaks (mainly changing ign->gz) but it seems to work great in Jazzy. Attached a video of testing it to move Ingenuity up and down and starting a dust storm.

2025_05_10_test_ingenuity_jazzy_hb.mp4

Our tweaks are in our fork: https://github.com/traclabs/demos/tree/pr_39_ingenuity . In case this PR could use our tweaks, I am happy to send a PR to the original PR.

[BarisYazici]

Just as a heads-up: I gave a shot to use this PR in Jazzy. Needed a few tweaks (mainly changing ign->gz) but it seems to work great in Jazzy. Attached a video of testing it to move Ingenuity up and down and starting a dust storm.

2025_05_10_test_ingenuity_jazzy_hb.mp4

Our tweaks are in our fork: https://github.com/traclabs/demos/tree/pr_39_ingenuity . In case this PR could use our tweaks, I am happy to send a PR to the original PR.

That’s great @ana-GT. I am happy to hear this project is helpful for you. I guess this PR is currently stale. But it would be a good reference for the people looking for the Jazzy version.

[ana-GT]

That’s great @ana-GT. I am happy to hear this project is helpful for you. I guess this PR is currently stale. But it would be a good reference for the people looking for the Jazzy version.

You are welcome, thanks for adding this robot to the demos repository. I updated our fork of your PR (this) and it works both in Docker and building it from source. I can move the drone up and down and in the XY plane at some extent (I don't have a controller yet for moving forward/backward/left/right with some accuracy).