Read Vehicle Settings from settings.json through RPC

[nrakoski3]

Hello,

I have a setup where I run a quadcopter in Unreal/ Airsim on a Windows machine and then control and get sensor data from the quadcopter using the MultirotorRpcLibClient from a Linux machine.

I saw that in airsim_ros_wrapper.cpp function AirsimROSWrapper::create_ros_pubs_from_settings_json() settings are pulled from the settings.json file and published as ROS topics.

I would like to pull my settings from the settings.json file into my logic on the Linux side, however when I use the code block below:

 // If we aren't connected to AirSim, try to connect.
    if (!client_connected_) {
        cout << "Connecting to AirSim: ip " << airsim_ip_ << ", port " << airsim_port_ << endl;
        sim_client_ = std::make_shared<ma::MultirotorRpcLibClient>(airsim_ip_,
                                                                   airsim_port_,
                                                                   airsim_timeout_s_);

        sim_client_->confirmConnection();

        // If we haven't been able to connect to AirSim, warn the user and return.
        if (sim_client_->getConnectionState() !=
            ma::RpcLibClientBase::ConnectionState::Connected) {
            client_connected_ = false;
            cout << "Warning: not connected to AirSim." << endl;

            // return std::make_shared<sc::MessageBase>();
            return true;
        }
        client_connected_ = true;
        sim_client_->enableApiControl(true);
    }

// Get Vehicles and Camera Settings

for (const auto& curr_vehicle_elem : AirSimSettings::singleton().vehicles) {
        // auto& vehicle_setting = curr_vehicle_elem.second;
        // auto curr_vehicle_name = curr_vehicle_elem.vehicle_setting.vehicle_name;
        auto& vehicle_setting = curr_vehicle_elem.second;
        auto curr_vehicle_name = curr_vehicle_elem.first;
        auto vehicle_setting_local = vehicle_setting.get();

        cout << "Vehicle Name" << endl;
        cout << curr_vehicle_name << endl;
        cout << "Vehicle Local" << endl;
        cout << vehicle_setting_local->vehicle_name << endl;

        //if (curr_vehicle_name=="SimpleFlight") {
        for (auto& curr_camera_elem : vehicle_setting_local->cameras) {
            auto& camera_setting = curr_camera_elem.second;
            auto& curr_camera_name = curr_camera_elem.first;

            cout << "Camera Name" << endl;
            cout << curr_camera_name << endl;

        }

        cout << "*************" << endl;
}

I get the print out:

Client Ver:1 (Min Req:1), Server Ver:1 (Min Req:1)
Vehicle Name
ComputerVision
Vehicle Local
ComputerVision
*************
Vehicle Name
PhysXCar
Vehicle Local
PhysXCar
*************
Vehicle Name
SimpleFlight
Vehicle Local
SimpleFlight
*************

My settings.json file only has a single quadcopter named "Drone1" with 4 camera settings, however using this method to pull AirSim Settings does not give me the vehicle I expect nor does it see the camera settings at all.

Questions:
Am I using this function wrong?
Is there a way to pull the settings.json file over RPC like the AirsimROSWrapper suggests?
Am I misunderstanding how the AirsimROSWrapper works?

Here is my settings.json:

{
  "SeeDocsAt": "https://github.com/Microsoft/AirSim/blob/master/docs/settings.md",
  "SettingsVersion": 1.2,
  "SimMode": "Multirotor",
  "LogMessagesVisible": true,
  "SpeedUnitFactor": 1.0,
  "SpeedUnitLabel": "m/s",
  "Recording": {
    "RecordOnMove": false,
    "RecordInterval": 0.05,
    "Cameras": [
		  { "CameraID": 0, "ImageType": 0, "PixelsAsFloat": false, "Compress": false },
		  { "CameraID": 0, "ImageType": 2, "PixelsAsFloat": true, "Compress": false },
		  { "CameraID": 0, "ImageType": 5, "PixelsAsFloat": false, "Compress": false },
          { "CameraID": 0, "ImageType": 7, "PixelsAsFloat": false, "Compress": false }
	  ]
  },
  "CameraDefaults": {
    "CaptureSettings": [
      {
        "ImageType": 0,
        "Width": 256,
        "Height": 144,
        "FOV_Degrees": 90,
        "AutoExposureSpeed": 100,
        "AutoExposureBias": 0,
        "AutoExposureMaxBrightness": 0.68,
        "AutoExposureMinBrightness": 0.03
      },
	  {
        "ImageType": 2,
        "Width": 256,
        "Height": 144,
        "FOV_Degrees": 90,
        "AutoExposureSpeed": 100,
        "AutoExposureBias": 0,
        "AutoExposureMaxBrightness": 0.68,
        "AutoExposureMinBrightness": 0.03
      },
	  {
        "ImageType": 5,
        "Width": 256,
        "Height": 144,
        "FOV_Degrees": 90,
        "AutoExposureSpeed": 100,
        "AutoExposureBias": 0,
        "AutoExposureMaxBrightness": 0.68,
        "AutoExposureMinBrightness": 0.03
      },
      {
        "ImageType": 7,
        "Width": 256,
        "Height": 144,
        "FOV_Degrees": 90,
        "AutoExposureSpeed": 100,
        "AutoExposureBias": 0,
        "AutoExposureMaxBrightness": 0.68,
        "AutoExposureMinBrightness": 0.03
      }
    ]  
  },
  "Vehicles": {
	"Drone1": {
			"VehicleType": "simpleflight",
			"AutoCreate": true,
			"Sensors": {
			    "Lidar1": { 
					"SensorType": 6,
					"Enabled" : true,
					"NumberOfChannels": 16,
					"RotationsPerSecond": 10,
					"PointsPerSecond": 100000,
					"X": 0, "Y": 0, "Z": -1,
					"Roll": 0, "Pitch": 0, "Yaw" : 0,
					"VerticalFOVUpper": -15,
					"VerticalFOVLower": -25,
					"HorizontalFOVStart": -20,
					"HorizontalFOVEnd": 20,
					"DrawDebugPoints": false,
					"DataFrame": "SensorLocalFrame"
				}
			}
	}
  }
}

[xapavlov]

Function create_ros_pubs_from_settings_json() (although named so) takes all the information not from json file, but from AirSimSettings singleton. Thus, you have to initialize AirSimSettingsParser class before using create_ros_pubs_from_settings_json(). This will run AirSimSettingsParser's constructor, parse settings.json and fill AirSimSettings.

In other words, what you are doing is ok, just put AirSimSettingsParser somewhere in the definition of your node class.