A script that can create a track driven sdf model for gazebo. The tracks are created by adding many small pads in the perimeter with a rotational joint in between. To alter the dimensions of the robot edit the file settings.config minimum_pads is essential for the tuning of the model to determine collision problems with the drums. If the model explodes due to collision, try increasing the minimum_pads. The more the minimum_pads, the better the approximation of a real track, however, the computational cost increases significantly.
You need to edit the variables set in the file "settings.config"
track_separation = 0.340
drum_radius = 0.07
drum_width = 0.1
drum_separation = 0.56
pad_width = 0.1
pad_thickness = 0.001
minimum_pads = 30
output = 'track_creator/model.sdf'
track_separation sets the distance between the left and right tracks drum_separation sets the wheelbase of the robot, or the distance of the front and rear drum in the tracks drum_radius sets the radius of the drums of the tracks drum_width sets the width of the cylinder and therefore the width of each track pad_width sets the width of the pads, should be set equal to the drum_width pad_thickness sets the thickness of the pads, usually a small value would suffice minimum_pads sets the minimum number of pads acceptable for each of the tracks for the approximation output sets the filename of the resulted sdf model
Simply navigate to the folder and execute the script track_creator.py In linux simply type:
./track_creator.py
The default model provided creates the robot shown in track_creator/model.png