robot-arm

Robot arm ROS2

General details about robot description packages

This description package follows, as much as possible, the recommendations from ROS-Industrial Consortium about robot support packages. The general package structure is the following:

<manufacturer|robot_name>_description/             # Robot's description files
├── [CMakeLists.txt]                               # if ament_cmake is used (recommended)
├── package.xml
├── [setup.py]                                     # if amend_python is used
├── [setup.cfg]                                    # if amend_python is used
├── config/                                        # general YAML files for a robot
│   └── <robot_name>_<someting_specific>.yaml
├── launch/                                        # launch files related to testing robots' description
│   └── test_<robot_name>_description.launch.py
├── meshes/                                        # meshes used in <robot_name>_macro.urdf.xacro
│   ├── collision
│   │   └── <robot_name|robot_model>               # meshes are sorted by robot name or model
│   │       ├── <link_xy>.stl
│   │       └── ...
│   └── visual
│       └── <robot_name|robot_model>
│           ├── <link_xy>.dae
│           └── ...
├── rviz/                                          # rviz display configurations
│   └── <robot_name>_default.rviz
└── urdf/                                          # URDF file for the robot
    ├── common.xacro                               # Common XACRO definitions
    ├── <robot_name>.urdf.xacro                    # Main URDF for a robot - loads macro and other files
    └── <robot_name|robot_model>
        ├── <robot_name>_macro.xacro               # Macro file of the robot - can add prefix, define origin, etc.
        └── <robot_name>_macro.ros2_control.xacro  # URDF-part used to configure ros2_control

Testing the validity of robot description

1. Go to the root of your workspace folder (there where src, build, install and log files are).
2. Install the package by calling colcon build --symlink-install --packages-select robot-arm
3. (Re-)Source environment source install/setup.bash
4. Launch description test:

   ros2 launch robot-arm test_tx200_description.launch.py
   

If there are no issues with the description, two windows are opened: rviz2 and Joint State Publisher. Rviz2 visualizes the robot's state and Joint state Publisher to changes joint values using sliders or generates random but valid configurations.

General details about robot description packages

This description package follows, as much as possible, the recommendations from ROS-Industrial Consortium about robot support packages. The general package structure is the following:

<manufacturer|robot_name>_description/             # Robot's description files
├── [CMakeLists.txt]                               # if ament_cmake is used (recommended)
├── package.xml
├── [setup.py]                                     # if amend_python is used
├── [setup.cfg]                                    # if amend_python is used
├── config/                                        # general YAML files for a robot
│   └── <robot_name>_<someting_specific>.yaml
├── launch/                                        # launch files related to testing robots' description
│   └── test_<robot_name>_description.launch.py
├── meshes/                                        # meshes used in <robot_name>_macro.urdf.xacro
│   ├── collision
│   │   └── <robot_name|robot_model>               # meshes are sorted by robot name or model
│   │       ├── <link_xy>.stl
│   │       └── ...
│   └── visual
│       └── <robot_name|robot_model>
│           ├── <link_xy>.dae
│           └── ...
├── rviz/                                          # rviz display configurations
│   └── <robot_name>_default.rviz
└── urdf/                                          # URDF file for the robot
    ├── common.xacro                               # Common XACRO definitions
    ├── <robot_name>.urdf.xacro                    # Main URDF for a robot - loads macro and other files
    └── <robot_name|robot_model>
        ├── <robot_name>_macro.xacro               # Macro file of the robot - can add prefix, define origin, etc.
        └── <robot_name>_macro.ros2_control.xacro  # URDF-part used to configure ros2_control

Testing the validity of robot description

1. Go to the root of your workspace folder (there where src, build, install and log files are).
2. Install the package by calling colcon build --symlink-install --packages-select robot-arm
3. (Re-)Source environment source install/setup.bash
4. Launch description test:

   ros2 launch robot-arm test_tx200_description.launch.py
   

If there are no issues with the description, two windows are opened: rviz2 and Joint State Publisher. Rviz2 visualizes the robot's state and Joint state Publisher to changes joint values using sliders or generates random but valid configurations.