RePAIR ROS Robot

1) Description

This repository contains the software to control the simulated and real RePAIR robot.

Dependencies

• catkin
• xacro
• Xbot2
• Softhand-plugin
• roboticsgroup_upatras_gazebo_plugins
• gazebo2rviz
• pysdf
• [realsense] (https://github.com/issaiass/realsense2_description)
• moveit
• install ddynamical reconfigure sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-ddynamic-reconfigure
• realsense2_camera is available as a debian package of ROS distribution. It can be installed by typing: sudo apt-get install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-realsense2-camera
• realsense_gazebo_plugin

2) Installation

• Clone the repository along with the submodules

   mkdir -p ~/repair_robot_ws/src && cd ~/repair_robot_ws/src
  
   git clone --recurse-submodules -j8 https://github.com/RePAIRProject/repair_ros_robot.git

• Install required Python packages

   cd ~/repair_robot_ws/src/repair_ros_robot
   pip3 install -r requirements.txt

• Build the workspace

  • source ROS (source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash) in all terminals

   cd ~/repair_robot_ws
  
   catkin build

  Troubleshooting

  If you get errors during build similar to (where package name is some name):

   CMake Error at /opt/ros/noetic/share/catkin/cmake/catkinConfig.cmake:83 (find_package):
   Could not find a package configuration file provided by
   "package_name" with any of the following names:
  
   	package_nameConfig.cmake
   	package_name-config.cmake
  
   Add the installation prefix of "package_name" to CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
   or set "package_name" to a directory containing one of the
   above files.  If "package_name" provides a separate development
   package or SDK, be sure it has been installed.

  Check the list below:

  Failure for realsense2 (missing "ddynamic_reconfigure")

  From this issue it looks like it should be installed by running:

   sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-ddynamic-reconfigure 

  Failure for repair_moveit_xbot (missing "moveit_ros_planning")

  Install moveit by

   sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-moveit
  

  Failure for repair_moveit_xbot (missing "rviz_visual_tools")

  Install it by

   sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-rviz-visual-tools
  

  Failure for repair_moveit_xbot (missing "moveit_visual_tools")

  Install it by

   sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-moveit-visual-tools 
  

  • After successful build, source the workspace in all the terminals

   cd ~/repair_robot_ws
  
   source devel/setup.bash
  

• For Gazebo:

  • Copy the fragment model folder from repair_urdf/sdf/frag3 to ~/.gazebo/models/frag3.
  • Change the path in file pysdf/src/pysdf/parser.py line 26 to your catkin_ws src path.

• Install XBot2 to use the real robot drivers (Source)

   sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list'
  
  sudo apt install curl 
  curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.asc | sudo apt-key add -
  
  sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y \
  ros-noetic-ros-base \
  libgazebo11-dev
  
  echo ". /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
  
  source $HOME/.bashrc
  sudo apt install -y \
  ros-$ROS_DISTRO-urdf ros-$ROS_DISTRO-kdl-parser \
  ros-$ROS_DISTRO-eigen-conversions ros-$ROS_DISTRO-robot-state-publisher ros-$ROS_DISTRO-moveit-core \
  ros-$ROS_DISTRO-rviz ros-$ROS_DISTRO-interactive-markers ros-$ROS_DISTRO-tf-conversions ros-$ROS_DISTRO-tf2-eigen \
  qttools5-dev libqt5charts5-dev qtdeclarative5-dev
  
  sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://xbot.cloud/xbot2/ubuntu/$(lsb_release -sc) /" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xbot-latest.list'
  wget -q -O - http://xbot.cloud/xbot2/ubuntu/KEY.gpg | sudo apt-key add -  
  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install xbot2_desktop_full
  
  echo ". /opt/xbot/setup.sh" >> ~/.bashrc

• Setup XBot2 to use the real robot drivers set_xbot2_config ~/repair_robot_ws/src/repair_ros_robot/repair_cntrl/config/repair_basic.yaml

For docs on repair_interface, go to the repair_interface.

3) Usage

Gazebo simulation

View the robot in Gazebo

roslaunch repair_gazebo repair_gazebo.launch

• You can ignore the following error messages, the model uses position controllers while p gains are only needed for effort controllers [ERROR] [1675347973.116238028]: No p gain specified for pid. Namespace: /gazebo_ros_control/pid_gains/x_joint

Motion planning and execution with Moveit and ros_control in Gazebo

roslaunch repair_gazebo bringup_moveit.launch launch_gazebo:=true sh_version:=v1_2_research fixed_hands:=false

• launch_gazebo:=true/false (default false): if true launches Gazebo for simulation, if false (default) real robot
• sh_version:=v1_2_research/v1_wide/mixed_hands (default v1_2_research): to use standard (small) hand/wide hand/standard hand on right and wide hand on left
• fixed_hands:=true/false (default true): true is needed for planning with real robot, but you cannot plan in simulation, set it to false to plan in Gazebo

Errors and warnings

• You can ignore the following error messages, the model uses position controllers while p gains are only needed for effort controllers [ERROR] [1675347973.116238028]: No p gain specified for pid. Namespace: /gazebo_ros_control/pid_gains/x_joint
• You can ignore the warning messages about unknown links in URDF (e.g. [ WARN] [1706696422.918657977, 1.124000000]: Link 'right_hand_v1_2_research_thumb_proximal_link' is not known to URDF. Cannot disable/enable collisons.), they doesn't affect the run of the simulation, you won't only be able to see the hand opening/closing in Rviz

XBot2

XBot2 is required when you want to control the real robot. Furthermore, there is a dummy mode that can be used to emulate the real robot interface. Using the dummy mode allows to use RVIZ with Moveit with the real robot controls instead of ros_control. Currently, this repository does not support using the dummy mode with Gazebo.

Dummy mode

• First, you have to configure your .bashrc so that the roscore is running on your local machine. For this purpose, add the following lines to your .bashrc.

   export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://{local_IP}:11311
   export ROS_IP={local_IP}

• Then, source your .bashrc and start the roscore in window 1.

   roscore

• Start XBot2 in window 2.

   xbot2-core --hw dummy

• Now you you have to start the bridge between XBot2 and ROS in window 3.

   rosrun repair_moveit_xbot moveit_xbot_bridge_node

• Finally, in window 4 you can start RVIZ and Moveit to control the emulated robot.

   roslaunch repair_moveit_xbot bringup_moveit.launch

Real robot

• First, you have to configure your .bashrc so that the roscore is running on the robot PC. For this purpose, add the following lines to your .bashrc.

   export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://{robot_IP}:11311
   export ROS_IP={local_IP}

• Then, source your .bashrc and connect via ssh to the real robot PC. You will need at least 3 remote command windows.

   ssh -X {host_name}@{robot_IP}

• Check in remote window 1 that the roscore is running. In case the roscore is not running you can restart it using the system command systemctl --user restart roscore.service

   rostopic list

• Then used the same window to start the ecat_master.

   ecat_master

• Now start XBot in remote window 2:

   xbot2-core --hw ec_pos

  This starts the motors to be controllable with position control. Alternatively you can start them in idle mode using xbot2-core --hw idle

• Finally use the following to start the gui:

   xbot2-gui

• On your local PC you will need at least 3 command windows.

• First, you can start Moveit:

   roslaunch repair_moveit_xbot bringup_moveit.launch

• Furthermore, start the moveit server:

   rosrun repair_interface moveit_client.py

• In order to run the camera, use:

  roslaunch realsense2_camera demo_pointcloud_new.launch

• Finally, In Order to use the Fresco recognition, run:

  rosrun repair_interface sand_detection.py

Now the szstem is set-up, and other code can be started!

Moveit configuration

• To increase/reduce the number of points for a trajectory, update the following parameter for arm_1 and arm_2 in repair_moveit_config_v2/config/ompl_planning.yaml

   longest_valid_segment_fraction: 0.00005

• To increase/decrease the velocity of arm joints, update the following parameter in repair_moveit_config_v2/config/joint_limits.yaml

   default_velocity_scaling_factor: 0.1
   default_acceleration_scaling_factor: 0.1

• Alternatively, velocity and acceleration scaling factors can be updated in the Rviz Motion Planning plugin before planning a path.

Run the pick and place demo

The goal of the demo is to pick and place any number of fresco fragments.

rosrun repair_interface moveit_multi_fresco_cleaned.py

Note: sh_version options are [v1_2_research, v1_wide, mixed_hands]

To run recognition, a few files need to be added (ask Luca Palmieri for the files):

• RPf_00123 to RPf_001266 should be added to repair_ros_robot/repair_urdf/sdf
• RPf_00123 to RPf_001266 should also be added to /home/.gazebo/models
• The fragment database directory fragments_db should be added to /home/.gazebo

Information about used topics

• To inspect all the topics exposed by xbot2 run rostopic list:
• Send commands to the joints (SoftHand excluded) using /xbotcore/command topic
• Read joint states (SoftHand excluded) using /xbotcore/joint_states topic
• Send commands to the SoftHans using /{left/right}_hand_v1s/synergy_command topic, or inspect the state of each finger looking at /{left/right}_hand_v1s/{fingername}_state topic

4) Known Issues

• Translation axis needs to be included

5) Relevant publications

T.B.A.