3D Path Planning for Quadrotor Using Gazebo Simulator

Mohammad Ryan Dirgantara; Eka Budiarto; Rusman Rusyadi

doi:10.33555/iconiet.v2i3.33

Mohammad Ryan Dirgantara Swiss German University
Eka Budiarto Swiss German University
Rusman Rusyadi Swiss German University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33555/iconiet.v2i3.33

Keywords: Quadrotor, robot operating system (ROS), Gazebo simulator

Abstract

This research explores the 3D path planning for quadrotor, which is an unmanned
aerial vehicle (UAV) with four rotors. The quadrotor is simulated using robot operating system
(ROS) and Gazebo software, and is equipped with camera, GPS sensor, and inertial
measurement unit (IMU) sensor to do the mapping of its environment. The packages used in
ROS are Hector Quadrotor package, joystick package, Octomap package, and MoveIt package.
These packages were modified so that it could be integrated with each other and fulfill the
objective of this research. For the 3D path planning, a method called rapidly-exploring random
tree (RRT) is explored and implemented. Several experiments regarding the behavior of the
quadrotor, the mapping, and the path planning were conducted to find out the performance and
limitations of the simulation. This simulation is set up so that it can be used to validate a new
design of quadrotor before it is tested with a physical prototype.