NASA Challenge_[@diyaagar]_[Simulation of the Boston Dynamics Spot robot in ROS2 and Ignition Gazebo]

[diyaagarwal21]

Adaption of Boston Dynamics Spot quadruped robot to ROS2 and Ignition Gazebo. Previously, the Boston Dynamics Spot robot was only simulated using ROS2 with Gazebo Classic, which goes end-of-life in January 2025. This package, modified from an existing package on Github (more details in the ReadME), simulates the Spot robot in Ignition Gazebo, a newer version of Gazebo. This combination of simulating the Spot robot with ROS2 and Ignition Gazebo on an open-source platform has not been done yet. Additionally, the Spot robot can also be viewed on Rviz to view and move the joints of the robot.

[Bckempa]

Hi, @diyaagarwal21. Can you read though this discussion about submodules in Space ROS and clarify why you want to add this to the Space ROS demos repo instead of just hosting the fork for any ROS project to use?

[diyaagarwal21]

Hello @Bckempa,
I thought adding this to the Space ROS demo repo would be helpful due to my package being another demo that can be used for NASA's Space ROS applications. Because the main component of the demos repo contains canadarm and a mars rover, I thought it may be helpful to also include a quadruped robot (the Boston Dynamics Spot robot) in the package to create a complete repository of various types of robots in space applications. I am open to making any changes/edits, so please let me know if there is anything you would like me to change! Thank you!

[Bckempa]

Hi @diyaagarwal21,

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I'm not discussing the merit of the contribution, but the method of including the package as a sub-module rather than using the more common ROS approach of specifying an external package repo to be included in the workspace - that's why I linked that comment thread as they discuss that mechanism.

[diyaagarwal21]

Hello @Bckempa,
I read through the discussion thread attached. I thought of adding to the Space ROS demo instead of having it being built as an external package, because then the user can make any desired edits to my included repository in one place. I am open to making any changes (I am a beginner at working with ROS2 but I can try my best to make any needed changes)!