Software Stack

Dropbear's software is built entirely on the Robot Operating System 2 (ROS 2), the industry standard for robotics development. This provides a robust, modular, and scalable framework for everything from low-level control to high-level planning.

Core Architecture: Corgi

The heart of our software stack is Corgi (Co-ordinated Robotic Gait and Intelligence). Corgi is our custom ROS 2 based whole-body control framework. It's responsible for:

• Real-time motion planning and trajectory generation.
• Maintaining balance and stability through an inverse-dynamics controller.
• Abstracting complex movements into simple commands.
• Managing communication with all actuators and sensors.

Getting Started

The entire software stack is open-source and available on GitHub. To get started, you'll need a machine running Ubuntu 22.04 with ROS 2 Humble installed.

First, clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/Hyperspawn/Dropbear.git

Next, install all necessary dependencies using the provided script:

cd Dropbear && ./scripts/install_deps.sh

Finally, build the workspace:

colcon build --symlink-install

Simulation

We provide a full simulation environment using Gazebo. This allows you to test code and develop new behaviors without needing physical hardware. You can launch the simulation with a single command:

ros2 launch dropbear_simulation simulation.launch.py

This will open a Gazebo window with a simulated Dropbear robot, ready to receive commands from your code or the command line.