Add wider variety of realistic worlds and robots using Gazebo Harmonic

[david-dorf]

Feature description

New Robots

Perseverance, Ingenuity, ISS docking, lunar construction rovers, and autonomous submarines are cornerstones of current and future NASA missions. Adding these robots with their numerous sensors and capabilities would provide a great way to simulate these missions with Space ROS. Having highly accurate masses, actuators, drag, and batteries would further benefit the ability to test these robots.

New Worlds

Highly detailed and accurate maps of Mars and the Moon, as well as possible environments such as the surface of the icy world of Enceladus would enhance the fidelity of simulations for extraterrestrial exploration.

Implementation considerations

Upgrade to Gazebo Harmonic

Gazebo Harmonic is the latest version of the Gazebo simulator, which has numerous robotics plugins and tighter integration with ROS 2 compared to other simulators.