This repository contains the ROS packages needed for the simulation of "Boxbot", a simple dual-armed robot consisting of two WidowX robotic arms attached to a simple "torso". Included is a URDF model of the robot, along with corresponding ros-control and Gazebo interfaces.
This software was developed and tested in:
- Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
- ROS Kinetic
- Gazebo 7.13.0
To install the current version of the repository to your machine, change directory into the desired catkin workspace source directory and clone the repository.
To launch a model of the robot in RViz from the top level directory, use:
roslaunch boxbot_description rviz.launch
Currently, you will manually have to add the robot model to the RViz window.
To launch an empty world with only the Boxbot robot in it, use:
roslaunch boxbot_gazebo empty_world.launch
Some other scenarios are included that were used to test dual-arm manipulation in simulation.
If you want to edit the URDF model, only modify the files that end with .urdf.xacro or .gazebo, found in the boxbot_description/robots and boxbot_description/urdf folders. Generally, you will not want to edit the .urdf files directly, as they are auto-generated and are also harder to sift through than the subcomponent files.
After you are done editing, you can regenerate the complete urdf model by switching into the boxbot_description package directory, and running the autogeneration script:
./urdf_regen.sh
- During initial testing of the physical Boxbot system, it was found that the first shoulder joint of the WidowX arm (joint_1) has problems holding up the wieght of the arm, sporadically shutting down due to what appears to be overload. In response, the shoulder joint is being redesigned to utilize a larger and more capable servo.
All new packages/files use the BSD 3-clause license presented in the main license file, and are Copyright (C) University of Cincinnati.
Exceptions include the whole of boxbot_description/meshes and some of the contents of boxbot_description/urdf, which are based on files from Interbotix's widowx_arm repository. Copyright for these are held by others, as reflected in the commit history for the original files. All modifications are Copyright (C) University of Cincinnati