• ZeroSim
  • Overview
  • API Documentation
  • Getting Started
    • Recommended System
    • Setting up a new Unity Project
    • Getting ZeroSim ROS Docker Container
    • Running TurtleBot Test Scene
    • Using RViz for Turtlebot
    • Running Universal Robot UR10 Arm Test Scene with MoveIt!
    • Running Image Segmentation Test

ZeroSim is a robotics simulation engine built on the easy to use Unity 3D development platform and the power of the Robotics Operating System (ROS). ZeroSim is designed for ease of use and rapid development of all sorts of robotics and simulation -- from warehouses and industrial settings, to farming and outdoors -- from robotic arms to ground and drone based mobile robots.

ZeroSim is a project developed over several years by FS Studios for the rapid development of all sorts of robotic simulation projects for various clients, from robotic arms to mobile robots.

We are releasing ZeroSim as open source to support the community of roboticist and software engineers that have supported us over the decades. We are in active development and welcome all feature requests, bug reports, and pull requests.

ZeroSim provides a multitude of tools for building robots and environments in Unity to interface with ROS. We strive to provide the same functionality and ROS interfaces of Gazebo. Including:

• Dynamics simulation using the latest PhysX 4.x integrated int Unity.

  • Hinge, ball, linear and fixed joints.
  • Temporal Gauss-Seidel solver option making articulated or jointed configurations much more robust.

• Advanced 3D Rendering, including the latest realtime ray tracing technology.

• Sensors:

  • 2D LIDAR -> ROS LaserScan message.
  • 3D LIDAR -> ROS LaserScan message.
  • Color camera -> ROS Image and ROS CameraInfo message.
  • Color + depth camera -> ROS Image and ROS CameraInfo message.
  • Stereo camera -> ROS Image and ROS CameraInfo message.
  • IMU -> ROS Imu message
  • Magnetometer -> ROS MagneticField message.
  • Contact switch
  • Altimeter

• Ready to use ROS standard controllers and plugins:

  • Differential drive. Controlled via standard ROS Twist message.
  • Robotic arm controller via the ROS FollowJointTrajectory Action Controller Interface allowing MoveIt to connect seamlessly with ZeroSim.
  • ROS TF publisher.
  • ROS JointState publisher.

• Full ROS messaging communications layers API.

  • Premade standard ROS messages
  • Subscribe and publish
  • Action Servers
  • Fast and efficient message encoding using ROS Bridge and BSON over TCP.

• Ready to run prebuilt ROS Docker images available publically on DockerHub: https://hub.docker.com/r/zerodog/zerosim_ros_vnc

• Machine Learning tools:

  • Image Segmentation for training semantic segmentation algorithms.

• COMING SOON:

  • More complete documentation.
  • URDF import & export.
  • Finish Docker integration with Unity. (Currently incomplete)
  • Secure communications via WebSockets.
  • Support for other Physics engines such as Bullet or Havok.

API Documentation

• Ubuntu 18.04 or 20.04 (may work on MacOS or Windows but currently untested)
• Unity 2020.x or greater
• ROS Melodic (ZeroSim provides a pre-built Docker container for ROS functionality https://hub.docker.com/r/zerodog/zerosim_ros_vnc)

1. In Unity Hub create a new Unity project using Unity 2020.x or later.
2. Add ZeroSim via Unity Packages:
   1. Unity Menu Window -> Package Manager
   2. Select the + dropdown:
      
   3. Select Add Package From Git URL... and enter git@github.com:fsstudio-team/ZeroSimROSUnity.git. Note this can take upto a few minutes to update but you should see the following:
      
   4. Import the ZeroSim Samples by selecting the Samples Import button in the Package Manager:
      
3. IMPORTANT the default Unity physics settings do not work well with a lot of simulations. It is very much recommended (required for probably most all simulations) to set the physics settings by opening the Unity menu Edit -> Project Settings... -> Physics and set the Default Solver Iterations to 30 and the Default Solver Velocity Iterations to 60.
4. IMPORTANT the default Unity fixed timestep setting does not work well with a lot of simulions. It is very much recommended to set the Fixed Timestep setting by Edit -> Project Settings... -> Time to 0.005
5. If running Unity on Linux you want to avoid using OpenGL and use Vulkan, otherwise image based sensors may run slowly or not at all. To change to using Vulkan:
   1. In the Unity Menu: Edit -> Project Settings...:
   2. Uncheck Auto Graphics API for Linux and then under Graphics APIs for Linux set Vulkan ahead of OpenGL:
      

1. Available at https://hub.docker.com/r/zerodog/zerosim_ros_vnc or docker pull zerodog/zerosim_ros_vnc:latest

NOTE: Order of operations is important. Especially starting the Docker before the Unity simulation.

1. Make sure that the ZeroSim samples are installed as outlined above.
2. Make sure that the ZeroSim Docker container above is installed.
3. Open the Turtlebot3_Waffle_test.scene
4. Launch the ZeroSim Docker via:

docker run -it --rm \
--publish=9090:9090 \
--publish=11311:11311 \
--publish=8083:8083 \
--publish=80:80 \
--publish=5678:5678 \
--name my_zerosim_vnc_docker \
zerodog/zerosim_ros_vnc:latest \
roslaunch zero_sim_ros basic_unity_editor.launch

5. Run the ROS teleop in a seperate terminal by running:

docker exec -it my_zerosim_vnc_docker \
bash -c "source devel/setup.bash ; rosrun turtlebot3_teleop turtlebot3_teleop_key"

6. In the Unity editor press the "Play" button.
7. The Turtlebot can now be controlled via the w a s d keys in the ROS teleop console window:

This will show visualizing the 2D LIDAR and ROS TF in RViz. This uses a VNC viewer to the ZeroSim ROS Docker container.

1. Startup the Turtlebot Test Scene as detailed above.
2. Open a noVNC connection by:
   1. In a browser open http://localhost:8083/vnc.html
   2. Press the "Connect" button.
3. In the VNC window press the LEFT mouse button and select "Terminal".
4. In the new terminal run rviz -d ./src/zero_sim_ros/rviz/turtlebot_viewer.rviz. RViz will start up with a 3D view with the LIDAR scanner visibile.

NOTE: Order of operations is important. Especially starting the Docker before the Unity simulation.

1. Make sure that the ZeroSim samples are installed as outlined above.
2. Make sure that the ZeroSim Docker container above is installed.
3. Open the UniversalRobot_UR10_test.scene
4. Launch the ZeroSim Docker via:

docker run -it --rm \
--publish=9090:9090 \
--publish=11311:11311 \
--publish=8083:8083 \
--publish=80:80 \
--publish=5678:5678 \
--name my_zerosim_vnc_docker \
zerodog/zerosim_ros_vnc:latest \
roslaunch zero_sim_ros ur10_moveit.launch

5. Start the UR10 test Scene by pressing the Play button.
6. Open a noVNC connection by:
   1. In a browser open http://localhost:8083/vnc.html
   2. Press the "Connect" button.
7. In the noVNC window RViz will be setup with MoveIt
8. You can now to standard MoveIt! operations in RViz to control the UR10 arm

1. Make sure that the ZeroSim samples are installed as outlined above.
2. Make sure that the ZeroSim Docker container above is installed.
3. Open the ImageSegmentation_test.scene
4. Launch the ZeroSim Docker via:

docker run -it --rm \
--publish=9090:9090 \
--publish=11311:11311 \
--publish=8083:8083 \
--publish=80:80 \
--publish=5678:5678 \
--name my_zerosim_vnc_docker \
zerodog/zerosim_ros_vnc:latest \
roslaunch zero_sim_ros basic_unity_editor.launch

5. Start the Image Segmentation Test Scene by pressing the Play button.
6. Open a noVNC connection by:
   1. In a browser open http://localhost:8083/vnc.html
   2. Press the "Connect" button.
7. In the VNC window press the LEFT mouse button and select "Terminal".
8. In the new terminal run rqt_image_view /image/segmentation_image.
9. Open up a second terminal and run rqt_image_view /image/image_raw