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 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:
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.
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.