leanhchien-1903 / amr-ros-config

URDF, launch files, and other ROS configuration for AMR robots

amr-ros-config

URDF, launch files, and other ROS configuration for AMR robots.

This directory should be in your ROS package path. Either append it to the ROS_PACKAGE_PATH environment variable1, or place it in the src subdirectory of your catkin workspace2.

Information relevant to multiple AMR robot types is included in this package.

URDF

URDF robot model descriptions can be found in the description subdirectory. This directory contains a ROS package named amr_robots_description. The Pioneer 3 DX and Pioneer 3 AT are based on various sources including p2os_urdf from the allenh1 p2os package (Allen Hunter/Vanderbuilt version), Dereck Wonnacott, the original p2os package, and others. Other URDF models have been added by Adept MobileRobots. Some URDF files might be useable as models in Gazebo (see Gazebo below).

For more details on using these models and the amr_robots_description package, see description/README.md

This repository has been started by MobileRobots as a single easy to find and maintain location, but is also a collaborative effort among the user community, please submit any fixes and improvements using the issue tracker or pull request.

Some URDF files use properties to specify key positions or dimensions. Open the URDF-Xacro file in a text editor to see properties and comments located near the top of the file. If your robot has additional accessory devices added, or parts moved or mounted other than default locations, you can copy and modify the base robot URDF-Xacro file into a custom URDF-Xacro model file for your robot, changing property values as neccesary.

(In the future, examples will be created that show how to use the Xacro "include" element to include default robot base models then add to them.)

If you would like any aspects of the robot base URDF models parameterized or otherwise changed, please submit a request using the issue tracker, or make the change in a fork of the Git repository and submit a pull request for review and discussion.

For documentation on URDF and Xacro file formats, see:

• http://wiki.ros.org/xacro
• http://wiki.ros.org/urdf/Tutorials

Launch files

Some example launch files have been included in the launch subdirectory. This directory contains a ROS package named amr_robots_launchfiles.

These launch files are intended to be copied and modified for your specific projects and robot configuration.

The rosaria.launch and rosaria+rviz.launch launch files are the simplest, which provide the rosaria node (connects to the robot), robot state publishers, URDF robot description (loaded from specified URDF file), and in the case of rosaria+rviz.launch, also run rviz.

To launch rosaria plus joint state publishers and description, run:

roslaunch rosaria.launch

Then use ROS command-line tools (rostopic, rosservice, etc.) or rqt to interact. An example rqt configuration is provided in launch/rosaria_rqt_example.perspective. Install rqt-rviz to get the robot model visualization plugin for rqt (For ROS indigo, install via apt-get install ros-indigo-rqt-rviz. For ROS hydro, install via apt-get install ros-hydro-rqt-rviz).

The launch files are generic for all types of robots, so most require giving a urdf argument referencing a URDF for a specific robot. Inside the launch XML file, an <arg> element declares this argument, and $(arg urdf) appears where the name of the URDF file is used. Therefore you can either replace $(arg urdf) with the URDF file for your specific robot type, or you can add a default attribute to the <arg> element for urdf specifying your robot's URDF file, so you can override it if needed. If urdf is not specified, a Pioneer 3 DX model is used by default.

Some launch files also take other arguments, such as joint_state_gui (boolean) to display the joint state publisher GUI window.

Gazebo

Some example Gazebo configuration can be found in the gazebo directory. This directory contains a ROS package named amr_robots_gazebo which can be used to reference files contained within it from other launch files, etc.

See gazebo/README.md for more information about using this configuration with the Gazebo simulator.

See http://wiki.ros.org/Robots/Pioneer for more discussion about the differences between using Gazebo and other ROS simulators , or rosaria with MobileSim or a real robot.