vr_ros2_bridge

Unity project and ROS 2 interface definitions for using the HTC Vive.

Contents:

• vr_ros2_bridge is a Unity project with a minimalistic VR setup, and a C# script called PublishControllerInfo.cs that reads from VR info from Unity and publishes via TCP. On the other end of the TCP connection is the C# ROS2 bridge, running on some Ubuntu machine that also has ROS 2 installed.
• vr_ros2_bridge_msgs is a ROS 2 messages package that defines the custom message ControllersInfo.msg which is a list of ControllerInfo.msg, which contains pose and button statuses.

Windows Setup

1. Ensure you have Unity Hub, Steam, and Steam VR Installed
2. Clone the repository containing the Unity project

   git clone git@github.com:/UM-ARM-Lab/vr_ros2_bridge.git
   

3. Open the project from the Unity Hub. The first time you do this, it will prompt you to install a specific version of the Unity Editor. It will also install the ROS-TCP-Connector package, OpenXR, and other dependencies. At this point you should be able to run the project (play button in the top center of the Unity Editor) you should see it run without errors. For something to actually happen, you need to start "Vive Console for Steam VR" and connect and power on the headset and controllers.

Ubuntu Setup

In your ROS 2 colcon workspace, you'll need this repo and the ROS TCP Endpoint repo (main-ros2 branch).

git clone git@github.com:/UM-ARM-Lab/vr_ros2_bridge.git
git clone git@github.com:Unity-Technologies/ROS-TCP-Endpoint.git -b main-ros2

How to run

• In Unity (on Windows), import and run ths vr_ros2_bridge project.
• Make sure in the "Hierarchy" pane on the left, you see "SampleScene". If not, go to "Assets > Scenes" in the "Project" pane and select "SampleScene".
• In Unity, go to the top menu and click "Robtics" > "ROS Settings" and make sure you have "ROS 2" selected, and the IP address of the Ubuntu machine you want to communicate with.
• In Ubuntu,
• In Ubuntu, start the C# ROS 2 bridge. See this guide for details. This essentially just requires running ros2 run ros_tcp_endpoint default_server_endpoint --ros-args -p ROS_IP:=$ROS_IP
• Hit the Play button in Unity. You need to either be wearing the hedest (not useful) or cover up the little sensor between the two eyes to trick it into thinking you're wearing it, otherwise the controllers won't work!

At this point you should be able to open RViz (run rviz2) and see the controller poses by adding Pose display types. By default, the controller poses are published in a frame called vr so you need to set the Global Frame in RViz to vr. This frame name can be changed in Unity by clicking on the ROSPublisher game object in the left panel, then setting the frame_name string in the right panel.