This repository exists to prototype the code written for the pose estimation system for the MoonRanger Lunar Rover .

The main components tested here are as follows:

1. Sun Sensor: Tests for verifying the math that converts alpha and beta angles to a unit vector representation of a sun ray.
2. EKF Simulation: Python bindings for the current implementation of the orientation EKF so that we can test, verify and visualize the results of the math.
3. Translation Estimation: Tests that verify we can use wheel velocities to estimate 3D position for a certain timestep.

The main dependencies for this project include a robotics package I wrote that contains helpful visualization tools called PyRobo, NumPy, PyBind11, and Matplotlib.

The easiest way to install all of these dependencies is to use a Conda environment with the following command:

conda env create -f environment.yml

Otherwise you will need to use pip:

pip install pybind11[global] 
pip install git+https://github.com/bkolligs/pyrobo.git@main

Then we can install all of the C++ code by performing the following commands in the top level directory:

pose-estimation-prototyping/

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
sudo make install

These commands build a shared library and install it in the site-packages directory corresponding to the current python executable, which should be in theproto-pose conda environment if you used conda. Otherwise it will correspond to your python3 executable, so any files should be run with that version of python. For example, python3 ekf_verify.py. This creates a python package called moonranger that can be accessed like this:

import moonranger as m

ekf = m.OrientationEKF()

# get the ekf's current state
print(ekf.get_state())