Simulation

The PlatformPilot GUI contains a feature-rich simulation of PlatformPilot. Therefore, the GUI is often used as a demo and showcase for the capabilities of a full PlatformPilot installation.

Types

From the installation, two types of robot simulation are available.

Built-in

This simulation is easy to launch but does not provide a way to configure robot properties and behaviour. It is meant to quickly set up one of the standard robot models and get an overview of the user interface in live action. For many scenarios this is completely sufficient.

The built-in simulation is launched via the Connecting dialog. In the dialog window, select Simulation and the platform type and confirm with Connect.

Standalone

This simulation runs in its own process outside the GUI. From user perspective, it behaves like a regular PlatformPilot installation on a real robot.

Tip

In Linux, make sure that prior to running the standalone simulation, the GUI has been executed at least once. This is necessary to set up your Pilot home folder.

Open your Pilot home folder (usually ~/pilot/ in Linux and pilot/ in the installation directory in Windows) and change into the subfolder config/local/. All configuration for your simulation will be made here. For a basic setup, just make sure that the content of the parent file points to the configs of the robot model you want to simulate.

Run the simulation by executing the run_pilot_simulation.sh (Linux) or the run_pilot_simulation.bat (Windows) file in the Pilot home folder. The installation also brings launchers for this. In Windows, it should already have been created on your Desktop. In Linux, it can be created with xdg-desktop-icon install /usr/share/applications/Neobotix-PlatformPilot-GUI-Simulation.desktop.

Also consult the general instructions of running PlatformPilot at Running.

First Steps

If you are using the standalone simulation, you have to explicitly connect to it in the GUI, usually via the localhost address. See Connecting.

In any case, the simulation needs a grid map to create localization and navigation data. If you don’t have a map of your own (yet), you can use the provided example map which is available through File > Stored Grid Maps.

Stopping

The built-in simulation can be stopped with the Disconnect button.

The standalone simulation runs in its own process that has to be terminated. In its terminal window, either hit Ctrl+C or press Enter and use the quit command. On Linux, the process will also terminate upon receiving the SIGTERM signal.