Panda Simulator

Latest version:

Latest Stable Release:

(version 1.0.0) - Now Supports MoveIt! (See version log for details)

A Gazebo simulator for the Franka Emika Panda robot with ROS interface, providing exposed controllers and real-time robot state feedback similar to the real robot when using the franka-ros package.

Features

Low-level controllers (joint position, velocity, torque) available that can be controlled through ROS topics (including position control for gripper).
Real-time robot state (end-effector state, joint state, controller state, etc.) available through ROS topics.
The franka_ros_interface package (which is a ROS interface for controlling the real Panda robot) can also be used with the panda_simulator, providing kinematics and dynamics computation for the robot, and direct sim-to-real code transfer.
Supports MoveIt planning and control for Franka Panda Emika robot and arm and Franka Gripper.

Continuous Integration Builds

ROS Kinetic (master branch)	ROS Melodic (melodic-devel branch)

Watch video here.

Dependencies

libfranka (sudo apt install ros-<version>-libfranka or install from source)
franka-ros (sudo apt install ros-<version>-franka-ros or install from source)

The following dependencies can be installed using the .rosinstall file (instructions in next section)

franka_ros_interface
franka_panda_description (urdf and model files from panda_description package modified to work in Gazebo, and with the custom controllers)
orocos-kinematics-dynamics

Installation

Clone the repo:

$ cd <catkin_ws>/src
$ git clone https://github.com/justagist/panda_simulator

Update dependency packages:

$ wstool init
$ wstool merge panda_simulator/dependencies.rosinstall
$ wstool up
$ cd .. && rosdep install -y --from-paths src --ignore-src --rosdistro $ROS_DISTRO

Once the dependencies are met, the package can be installed using catkin_make:

$ source /opt/ros/$ROS_DISTRO/setup.bash
$ catkin build # if catkin not found, install catkin tools (apt install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-python-catkin-tools)
$ source devel/setup.bash

Usage

The simulator can be started by running:

$ roslaunch panda_gazebo panda_world.launch

This exposes a variety of ROS topics and services for communicating with and controlling the robot in simulation.

A demo node 'move_robot.py' is provided demonstrating (i) controlling the robot (ii) retrieving state information of the robot.

Some useful ROS topics

Published Topics:

ROS Topic	Data
/panda_simulator/custom_franka_state_controller/robot_state	gravity, coriolis, jacobian, cartesian velocity, etc.
/panda_simulator/custom_franka_state_controller/tip_state	end-effector pose, wrench, etc.
/panda_simulator/joint_states	joint positions, velocities, efforts

Subscribed Topics:

ROS Topic	Data
/panda_simulator/motion_controller/arm/joint_commands	command the robot using the currently active controller
/panda_simulator/franka_gripper/move	(action msg) command the joints of the gripper

Other topics for changing the controller gains (also dynamically configurable), command timeout, etc. are also available.

ROS Services:

Controller manager service can be used to switch between all available controllers (joint position, velocity, effort). Gripper joints can be controlled using the ROS ActionClient (via the same topics as the real robot and franka_ros).

Related Packages

franka_ros_interface : A ROS API for controlling and managing the Franka Emika Panda robot (real and simulated). Contains controllers for the robot (joint position, velocity, torque), interfaces for the gripper, controller manager, coordinate frames interface, etc.. Provides almost complete sim-to-real transfer of code.
panda_robot : Python interface providing higher-level control of the robot integrated with its gripper, controller manager, coordinate frames manager, etc. It also provides access to the kinematics and dynamics of the robot using the KDL library.

The franka_ros_interface package provides Python API and interface tools to control and communicate with the robot using the ROS topics and services exposed by the simulator. Since the simulator exposes similar information and controllers as the robot_state_controller_node of the franka_ros_interface, the API can be used to control both the real robot, and the simulated robot in this package, with minimum change in code.

Version Update:

Check versionLog.md.

License

If you use this software, please cite it using .

cesar-vargas88/panda_simulator