🐙SubSeaPressureSensor

🪼Overview

The Subsea Pressure Sensor Plugin is a simulation plugin designed to simulate the behavior of a subsea pressure sensor within a Gazebo simulation environment. The plugin integrates with Gazebo, using the Gazebo and ROS 2 interfaces to publish simulated sensor data. This documentation outlines the purpose of the plugin, its parameters, and its operational workflow.

🕸️Parameters Summary Table -

Parameters that we can define in out sdf/world files -

Parameters	Default Values	Notes
`Saturation`	3000	The maximum value for output pressure in Pascals. This parameter sets an upper limit on the pressure readings produced by the sensor.
`estimate_depth_on`	false	A boolean flag indicating whether to estimate depth based on the pressure measurement. If set to true, the plugin calculates the depth of the sensor based on the pressure readings.
`standard_pressure`	101.325	The standard atmospheric pressure at the surface in Pascals. This parameter is used as a reference point for calculating depth.
`kPa_per_meter`	9.80638	The conversion factor from depth (in meters) to pressure (in kilopascals). This parameter defines how pressure changes with depth in the simulated environment.
`noiseSigma`	0.01	The standard deviation of the Gaussian noise added to the pressure readings.

Operation

configure - During the configuration phase, the plugin initializes its parameters based on the values specified in the SDF file. It creates the necessary publishers for publishing sensor data via ROS 2 and, optionally, Gazebo messages.
PreUpdate - In the PreUpdate phase, the plugin prepares to simulate the pressure sensor readings. It retrieves the world pose of the sensor, calculates the depth, and generates the corresponding pressure reading. Gaussian noise is added to the pressure reading to simulate real-world sensor inaccuracies.
PostUpdate - In the PostUpdate phase, the plugin publishes the simulated pressure data. If enabled, the plugin publishes both ROS 2 and Gazebo messages, allowing other components in the simulation to subscribe to and use the sensor data.

How to use the Plugin -

1.XML Parameters -

First you would need to add the following lines to your sdf file-

    <!-- Sea Pressure Sensor Plugin -->
    <plugin
      filename="sea_pressure_sensor"
      name=" dave_gz_sensor_plugins::SubseaPressureSensorPlugin">
      <namespace>rexrov</namespace>
      <topic>sea_pressure</topic>
      <update_rate>10</update_rate>
      <noise_sigma>3.0</noise_sigma>
      <estimate_depth_on>false</estimate_depth_on>
      <standard_pressure>101.325</standard_pressure>
      <kPa_per_meter>9.80638</kPa_per_meter>
    </plugin>

kindly don’t forget to replace the namespace tag with your model name.

2. Shell command

Then Run -

ros2 launch dave_robot_launch robot_in_world.launch.py z:=-5 namespace:=rexrov world_name:=dave_ocean_waves paused:=false