Project DAVE

<aside> 💡 This is document for ros2 branch (based on ROS 2 Jazzy and Gazebo Harmonic). For legacy source code (master branch of https://github.com/Field-Robotics-Lab/dave) which uses ROS 1 Noetic and Gazebo Classic, move to https://field-robotics-lab.github.io/dave.doc/

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DAVE Aquatic Virtual Environment(DAVE) is a simulation environment initiated by Naval Postgraduate School to support the rapid testing and evaluation of underwater robotic solutions, specifically underwater vehicles (AUVs/UUVs) operating autonomously and completing missions that involve autonomous maniputlation. The environment is built upon existing ROS and Gazebo infrastructure, particularly the UUV Simulator and WHOI's ds_sim

Disclaimer for ros2 branch

The ros2 branch represents ongoing migration work towards integrating ROS 2 Jazzy and Gazebo Harmonic LTS. This branch evolved from the legacy Project Dave master branch, which was originally based on ROS 1 Noetic and Gazebo Classic 11. As these original frameworks will reach end-of-life in early 2025, the migration became necessary. However, not all plugins and capabilities have been migrated yet. To view a comprehensive list of migrated and pending plugins, please refer to the Migration Progress

Overview

• For a high-level overview of the project, see the release highlight videos:

  • (Legacy; ROS 1 Noetic - Gazebo Classic 11) Release 4.3.1 Highlight Video, March 2022

    

  • Release 1.0.0 Highlight Video, June 2020.

• For an overview of what is included in the most recent release, see the Changelog
• To try the simulation, follow from Installation Tutorial

Project Objective

The objective of the project is to provide the following capabilities:

• Visual, physical and (hydro)dynamic models of generlized vehicle, manipulator and sensor elements
• Simulation of sensing specific to underwater robotics including perception (e.g., sonar, underwater lidar and optical imaging) and navigation (e.g., DVL and USBL)
• Parameterized representations of the ocean environment including seafloor bathymetry and ocean currents

These capabilities will enable support the development of autonomous systems capable of multi-phase underwater missions over large time and space scales

Contributing

We welcome contributions from the robotics community. We are particularly interested in contributions to extend and improve capabiliteis associated with the objectives described above. To contribute, please submit an issue or a pull request

In addition to our officially supported, core features, Dave also includes a number of features that are supported exclusively by community members

Citation