Problems with ExampleHel​perGazeboS​pawnedMode​l ROS Kinetic on R2018b

Hi,

I am trying to run the example https://www.mathworks.com/help/robotics/examples/read-model-and-simulation-properties-in-gazebo.html on ROS Kinetic and MATLAB R2018b but the said function takes forever to run. All I see is MATLAB is "Busy" and there is no other response, gazebo does not open up as well.

NOTE:

I did update the rosjava_messages.jar file as mentioned on this link https://visionlab.uncc.edu/dokuwiki/range-only_slam_from_matlab_using_ros_and_the_gazebo_simulator

I am not sure if I should move to R2019a to try this example?

My script pasted below for reference.

%% Initialize
clc;
clear;
close all;

% Initialize ROS
ip_address = '130.215.206.232';
rosinit(ip_address)

% Connect to Gazebo world
gazebo = ExampleHelperGazeboCommunicator;
kobuki = ExampleHelperGazeboSpawnedModel('mobile_base',gazebo);

% Read pose and velocity of the Kobuki Base
[position, orientation, velocity] = getState(kobuki);

% Clear the workspace of publishers, subscribers and other ROS objects
clear
% Disconnect from the ROS network
rosshutdown

Answer 1

[Cam Salzberger]

What version of Gazebo are you using? The example helpers were designed for the purpose of working with the ROS Hydro VM and its Gazebo installation. If you are using a newer version of Gazebo, its API may have changed, and the example helper may not be able to communicate with it in the same way.

Also, I can't speak for the vision lab's JAR file, but if you want to update the built-in message definitions to Kinetic, you could try our recommended workflow (detailed here).