Ball chaser ROS plugin

Outline

Designed a robot inside a gazebo world and implemented a white ball chaser plugin. The plugin searches for white pixels within the array and identifies its position with respect to the camera (left, centre, right). As a result the robot moves either left, forward or right.

Install Details

First check for any package updates.
$ sudo apt-get update

Then install the ROS kinetic package.
$ sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-desktop

Once the package is upto date, create the catkin_ws.

$ mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src
$ cd ~/catkin_ws/src
$ catkin_init_workspace
$ cd ../
$ catkin_make

Clone the packages and run the ROS package "my_robot".

$ catkin_make
$ source devel/setup.bash
$ roslaunch my_robot world.launch

In a new terminal run the "ball_chaser" package.

$ catkin_make
$ source devel/setup.bash
$ roslaunch ball_chaser ball_chaser.launch

Move the white ball in front of the robot and it should start following it.

Structure Overview

Below the structure of the files is shown.

catkin_ws/src
    │
    ├── my_robot                       # my_robot package   
    │   ├── launch                     # launch folder for launch files   
    │   │   ├── robot_description.launch
    │   │   ├── world.launch
    │   ├── meshes                     # meshes folder for sensors
    │   │   ├── hokuyo.dae
    │   ├── urdf                       # urdf folder for xarco files
    │   │   ├── my_robot.gazebo
    │   │   ├── my_robot.xacro
    │   ├── worlds                     # world folder for world files
    │   │   ├── myworld.world
    │   ├── CMakeLists.txt             # compiler instructions
    │   ├── package.xml                # package info
    │
    ├── ball_chaser                    # ball_chaser package   
    │   ├── launch                     # launch folder for launch files   
    │   │   ├── ball_chaser.launch
    │   ├── src                        # source folder for C++ scripts
    │   │   ├── drive_bot.cpp
    │   │   ├── process_images.cpp
    │   ├── srv                        # service folder for ROS services
    │   │   ├── DriveToTarget.srv
    │   ├── CMakeLists.txt             # compiler instructions
    │   ├── package.xml                # package info                  
    └──