SteamVR to CoppeliaSim to ROS

[Logxen]

I would like to use VR to program robotics. I am having some trouble getting a complete toolchain running though. The CoppeliaSim-VR-Toolbox app that connects steamvr to CoppeliaSim only seems to run in Windows. This seems to make sense as steamvr strongly prefers to be running on Windows anyway. However the rosinterface plugin for CoppeliaSim appears to only be available for linux! This would also seem to make sense as ROS strongly prefers to run on linux. How to actually get it to go then? :)

The most promising thing I have tried so far is to have steamvr and the coppeliasim-vr-toolbox running in windows and then set up a port forwarder for 19997 to a linux vm running coppeliasim. This seems to work for a moment but promptly crashes out trying to transfer the scene assets.

The other idea I had was to attempt to make a windows dll version of the rosinterface library ... but that sounds non-trivial from where I'm sitting.

For the moment I can probably work around the problem by training in windows coppelia and then copying the scene to linux coppelia to drive the bot. However, this clearly won't allow live control of a robot from the vr interface so long term it would be ideal to get the full chain running somehow.

Am I missing something and making this harder than it needs to be? I am open to suggestions on how to get this full toolchain running.

[coppelia]

Hello,

I guess you are referring the developments of Boris Bogaert. As far as I know, ROS should should currently be much more easy to install/run on Window, you'll however need visual studio 2019. But it might still be a hassle!
Another option would be to use a different middleware such as BlueZero or the B0-based remote API...

Cheers

[Smitty44]

Hi there,
I figured I would join in here.
I have installed/run ROSonWindows. It works, I can start roscore and everything looks fine, so far.
I successfully created a workspace according to ROS tutorials. I still have much more to learn.
Also, I have the CoppeliaSim installed and working on my windows machine.
In addition, I have Anaconda3 installed and have Spyder with some python code, interacting with the Sim.
In the future, I was also intending to add SteamVR into the mix.

So, it is my hope that there is a way to get ROSonWindows and CoppeliaSim to communicate.
How would the ROSinterface be altered to do such a thing?
At this point, is this a daunting task?
When you mention BlueZero or B0-based remote API, how do they fit in?
Thank you in advance.

[Boris]

Hi,

If somebody wants to run the VR interface on windows and coppeliaSim on Linux. This is perfectly possible. We found the issue (https://github.com/BorisBogaerts/Coppel ... x/issues/2). You just have te use a NAS if you want textures.

Kind regards,
Boris