yhtsai / simple_ros_control

A simple example for ROS control.

Disclaimer

This project isn't complete, and also not general enough. Please take care of this.

Package Explaination

• simple_ros_control: Just for metapackage informations.
• simple_ros_control_main: The main package for ROS control, including hardware_interface, transmission_interface..., etc. This package is responsible for registering joints to ROS controller manager and updating motor commands. Your robots will share this package.
• communication_interface(*1): Implement your communication functions here to fit your robots. Notice that all the functions defined here, such as init() and update_pp(), will be called by simple_ros_control_main package. So please don't add or delete functions. Just implement the what the function wants.
• simple_robot_description: Put your urdf here, with their names "simple_diff_robot.xacro"(if a differential drive platform) or "simple_robot.urdf"(if a robot arm). I will change these names to make more sense in the future.
• simple_robot_moveit_config: If you use a robot arm, please put your moveit config here. Please DON'T change the package name (namely, simple_robot_moveit_config) because the package will be called by simple_ros_control_main.
• simple_robot_config: There are two .yaml here now: arm_ros_control.yaml and diff_ros_control.yaml. Modify the content, including degree of freedom, gear ratios, update frequency..., etc. to fit your robots.

*1:This is beacuse I want to make simple_ros_control_main independent. More clearly, whenever simple_ros_control_main updates, different robots don't have to modify the motor communication functions. If you have better ideas, please tell me. Thanks!

Demo

Edit the config file:

rosed simple_robot_config arm_ros_control.yaml

Change the control_type to fake, namely:

control_type: fake

Launch controllers and some other things:

roslaunch simple_ros_control_main arm_ros_control.launch

Run the main control node:

rosrun simple_ros_control_main simple_ros_control_main

Launch moveit:

roslaunch simple_ros_control_main moveit_bringup.launch

Drag the robot arm, and then press plan and execuate, you can see the joints and actuators value change in the terminal running simple_ros_control_main node. The actuator values shown will be passed to the communication_interface. So you can use these values to write into your motors.