If you’re using a Windows machine to login remotely, you won’t be able to run the
simulator unless you’ve installed an X server.
The following instructions show you how to set up your shell environment, start
the Player/Stage simulator, and run an example program.
-
The Player binary (called robot-player in our new Ubuntu installation)
is located in /usr/bin, so be sure this is in your
PATH environment variable. (Note: There is also a version of player in /research/playerstage,
but this is an older version. Please use the version in /usr/bin.)
-
When we start Player, it will try to load the Stage plugin module. We tell it where
to look with the PLAYERPATH environment variable.
For .bashrc or .zshrc:
export PLAYERPATH=”/usr/bin”
For .cshrc or .tcshrc:
setenv PLAYERPATH /usr/bin
- [For this class (Autonomous Mobile Robots),
you must use C or C++. So, this information is
included only for your information, in case you want to work with
Player/Stage on your own later. That is, skip this step for this class.]
[Note: These Python/Java instructions might need updating under our new Ubuntu
installation. Let me know if you know of changes that should be made.]
If you don’t plan to use Python or Java, you can skip this step. If you plan to write
your program in Python, you need to tell it where to find Player’s Python modules by
modifying PYTHONPATH. If you will be using Java, the location of Player’s Java class
files needs to be added to CLASSPATH.
For .bashrc or .zshrc:
export PYTHONPATH=”$PYTHONPATH:/usr/local/lib/python2.4/site-packages”
export CLASSPATH=”$CLASSPATH:/usr/local/src/javaclient/classes:.”
For .cshrc or .tcshrc:
setenv PYTHONPATH $PYTHONPATH:/usr/local/lib/python2.4/site-packages
setenv CLASSPATH $CLASSPATH:/usr/local/src/javaclient/classes:.
-
Now copy the examples to your home area, so that you can experiment with them.
These examples come from within the "share" directory in /usr/share
(in particular the "player" and "stage" subdirectories).
To make it easier for you to begin with, I have packaged these files
together in the tar file here:
Player/Stage examples. This package also includes an example Makefile that
helps you compile your Player/Stage programs. Download this file to your own directory
and unpack it ("tar xvf P-S-examples.tar").
You will find two subdirectories:
worlds: This contains the maps and configuration files for various
examples.
examples: This contains example programs in C++.
-
Let’s verify that we can start the Player/Stage simulator and get the Stage window to show
up on the screen. Player should be run from the worlds directory since it requires a
configuration file on startup. So go to the worlds directory and type the following
command:
robot-player simple.cfg
(Note: on most installations of Player/Stage, the executable is called "player"
instead of "robot-player". However, our EECS Ubuntu installation of Player/Stage automatically
renamed the executable "robot-player", to prevent some naming conflicts. Just be
aware of this naming difference, should you install Player/Stage on your own personal
computer (in which case the binary might end up being named "player")).
This should open a Stage simulator window with a robot in the lower left of the map.
-
At this point, the Player server running on the simulated robot is waiting for a client program
to connect and begin accessing the sensor data and sending movement commands. For now, we’ll
use the client program in the examples/libplayerc++ directory. In another terminal window, go to this
directory and run the executable:
./laserobstacleavoid
If you see the robot moving through the environment, everything is set up correctly.