Universal_Robots_ROS2_Description

This repository contains description files and meshes for Universal Robots manipulators.

Build status

ROS2 Distro	Branch	Released packages
Humble	`humble`	ur_description
Iron	`iron`	ur_description
Rolling	`rolling`	ur_description

A more detailed build status shows the state of all CI workflows inside this repo. Please note that the detailed view is intended for developers, while the one here should give end users an overview of the current released state.

Note that for ROS2 Foxy the description is in the driver's repository. Please do not clone this repository into a Foxy workspace.

License

The UR20 meshes constitutes “Graphical Documentation” the use of which is subject to and governed by our “Terms and Conditions for use of Graphical Documentation”.
If you have any questions regarding the license or the license doesn't fit you use-case, please contact legal@universal-robots.com.

All other content is licensed under the BSD-3-Clause license

Structure of the repository

The most relevant files are:

urdf/ur_macro.xacro - macro file with UR-manipulator description. This file is usually included into external projects to visualize and configure UR manipulators properly. An example how to use this macro is in urdf/ur.urdf.xacro file.
urdf/ur.ros2_control.xacro - definition of manipulator's joints and interfaces for ros2_control framework.

Testing description of a manipulator

To visualize the robot install this repository to you workspace and execute the following:

ros2 launch ur_description view_ur.launch.py ur_type:=ur5e

To test other descriptions change the ur_type argument.

Package / Description structure

This package uses one description for all robots. The different robot variants are configured using four configuration files. These files can also be changed for further customizing a description.

Basically, the description can be modified using configuration values stored in four files:

config/urXX/default_kinematics.yaml - This contains the calibration values as they can be extracted from the robot. Changing these values with the one extracted from a real robot will result in a description matching the real robot exactly (w.r.t the tool0 frame). It is highly recommended to use matching kinematic values in real-world applications.
config/urXX/joint_limits.yaml - If you'd like to further restrict the robot's joint limits, these limits can be modified there.
config/urXX/physical_parameters.yaml - Everything regarding physics simulation parameters (e.g. inertia poses and values) can be tuned here
config/urXX/visual_parameters.yaml - Some users change certain visual aspects, e.g. replacing the cap on the wrist_3_link. This config file specifies which meshes (both, visual and collision) should be used.

The four configuration files have to be passed to ur_macro.urdf (more specific to the macro defined in that file) which is done inside the ur.urdf.macro. Contents of the files are parsed inside ur_common.xacro.

Arguments that have to be passed to the main ur.urdf.xacro file are:

kinematics_params - Filename to the default_kinematics.yaml (or equivalent specific kinematics) file
joint_limit_params - Filename to the joint_limits.yaml file
physical_params - Filename to the physical_parameters.yaml file
visual_params - Filename to the visual_params.yaml file

The launchfile launch/view_ur.launch.py abstracts these four parameters to one ur_type argument which will basically replace the urXX part of the paths as shown in the picture above.

Creating your own description including this description

In real-world applications you will most probably have a more complex description consisting of more objects than just the robot. It is recommended to create a separate ROS package containing this particular description. Inside this description you could also store your robot-specific kinematics parameters file.

As mentioned above, see the urdf/ur.urdf.xacro file as an example to integrate a UR robot into your scene description. Basically, you could create a copy of that file and extend it with the modifications from your specific scene.