Environment tag HELLO_FLEET_PATH is not set

Hello, I came accross your robot at a conference HRI, Since then I am fascinated by your robot and its simplicity. So, I tried to explore the product myself. And then I cam across the ros related packages. But when I am trying to run one of the launch file
roslaunch stretch_demos handover_object.launch
But I get an error

RLException: Invalid tag: environment variable ‘HELLO_FLEET_PATH’ is not set.
Arg xml is
The traceback for the exception was written to the log file

So, Can you please look into this and tell me on how to overcome this error

Hi @shravista, thank you for your interest in the Stretch platform!

At the moment, our ROS software is highly dependent on the physical robot. This means that the demo you are attempting will only work on a Stretch. In the future, we hope to support a simulated version of Stretch, which will enable you to test our ROS software on your computer.

If you are interested in exploring a simulated Stretch, a researcher at Georgia Tech has built a simulation called Assistive Gym, based on the OpenAI Gym interface. This is an independent project, and therefore does not integrate with Hello Robot’s ROS software.

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Ok, Thanks. I am thinking of this robot as an inspiration for designing a mobile manipulator for cleaning and sanitizing tasks. So, Can you help me in designing the manipulator like yours or can I use the design files just to explore and then can cite your project for reference in one of my project.

To support openness with the Stretch platform, we develop open source on Github. However, the design of Stretch is proprietary with patents pending. Please feel free to explore our software repos and hardware accessories on Github.

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Ok, Thanks for your information. I gained a lot of insights on designing the mobile manipulator on behalf of your design. And one more thing I would like to add is, I wanted to cite your project as a reference to one of my ongoing project (which is at a proposal stage right now) can I do this? If yes, can you provide me with how can I cite your project for my reference?

That’s great to hear @shravista. The best way to cite us at the moment would be to simply cite our website.

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Thanks for the help. Once my project got accepted, I will let you know.

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