ROS Gazebo simulation

This software includes a description of the geometry, kinematics and dynamics of the youBot in URDF format and a ROS package to work with this model within the Gazebo simulation environment. URDF (Unified Robot Description Format) is an XML based format used in ROS (Robot Operating System) for representing robot models.

Installation

This installation guide assumes that ROS is already installed, preferably the Ubuntu package based installation for Ubuntu 10.04 and higher, as described in http://www.ros.org/wiki/electric/Installation/Ubuntu. The ros-electric-ros-base installation will be sufficient. To install the model issue the following commands:

$ sudo apt-get install ros-electric-pr2-controllers
$ sudo apt-get install ros-electric-pr2-simulator # required for trajectory_msgs and Gazebosimulator
$ mkdir ~/ros_stacks  # (if not done already)
$ cd ~/ros_stacks
$ git clone https://github.com/youbot/youbot-ros-pkg.git
$ git clone https://github.com/ipa320/cob_common.git # brics_actuator messages

In case the folder ~/ros_stacks(the folder you have chosen to place the youbot-ros-pkg) has not yet been added to the $ROS_PACKAGE_PATH, you need to add this directory, by appending it in the /opt/ros/electric/setup.sh and either restarting the terminal window or typing:

$ source /opt/ros/electric/setup.bash

You can check if it works by typing the following command:

$ roscd youbot_description

If the console switches to the youbot_description folder, then everything is fine. Otherwise there is probably something not correct with the $ROS PACKAGE PATH environment variable.

To compile the model use rosmake:

$ rosmake brics_actuator youbot_description

Usage

To run the simulation open a new console window and execute the following command:

$ roslaunch youbot_description youbot_arm_publisher.launch

This will bring up roscore, load youBot model, bring up and connect the Gazebo simulator.

Note: If you experience technical problems with Gazebo, rviz may be a good alternative for simulation process visualization:

$ roslaunch youbot_description youbot_arm_publisher_no_x.launch
$ rosrun rviz rviz

In rviz click Add button and subscribe for Robot Model topic. In the field Target Frame specify base link for robot model: /base_link

Now you are ready to make your fist simulation. As a first step run the arm_joint_position_control_test example:

$ rosrun youbot_description arm_joint_position_control_test

This example shows how to control a youBot arm in joint position mode. Try out arm_joint_velocity_control_test and arm_joint_torque_control_test 
for joint velocity and torque control modes.

Note: examples above together with youbot_oodl ROS package could be used to control a real youBot. Installation instructions on youbot_oodl ROS package can be found under Frameworks section.

Support

• get help
• mail to users@youbot-community.org (or click here to subscribe)