eDO moveit package

This package plans trajectories of eDO robots and their electric gripper. It works either with a fake (simulated) robot or with an actual eDO.

How to install this package

cd ros_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/ymollard/eDO_moveit.git
git clone https://github.com/ymollard/eDO_control.git
git clone https://github.com/ymollard/eDO_description.git
git clone https://github.com/ymollard/eDO_core_msgs.git
pip install getkey numpy
cd ..
catkin_make

Quickstart with a fake (simulated) eDO robot

Start MoveIt with a fake eDO:

roslaunch edo_moveit demo.launch simulated:=true

You can then use the regular MoveIt GUI or generate your own trajectories:

1. In the Motion Planning widget located at the bottom left of the RVIz window, select tab Planning
2. In the 3D robot view, move the blue ball corresponding to the end effector somewhere in space
3. The orange robot configuration is your new position target, move or rotate it as you want
4. Click Plan and Execute to start moving your simulated robot at this position

Quickstart with a real eDO robot

Although other configurations are possible, this package intends to run on a deported workstation connected through Ethernet to a 6-axis e.Do on which an electric gripper is mounted. Other configurations (Wifi, no gripper, run on the internal Pi...) might need to tweak a bunch of parameters, as they have not been tested. We do not advise Wifi connection: since joint commands are sent over the network, it might result is jerky trajectories because of Wifi lags.

1. Network configuration to be done once

1.1 Local workstation network

Before anything, configure your workstation's IP address so that's in the 10.42.0.XXX network. Here we assume 10.42.0.1 so make sure you replace all 10.42.0.1 by you own IP if you choose another one.

1.2 EDo's raspi configuration over Ethernet

Allow your robot to communicate with your local workstation through Ethernet with this configuration step. Connect to the EDo's internal Raspberry Pi via SSH:

ssh [email protected]

Default password is raspberry. You should see an italian-speaking comandi tmux prompt with explanations about rostopic. If you don't, you have trouble in networking configuraiton, or the internal Raspberry Pi does not run.

We need to edit the ministarter script:

nano ~/ministarter

Locate these 2 ROS configuration lines:

export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://192.168.12.1:11311
export ROS_IP=192.168.12.1

and replace them by the IP address of the robot's Ethernet interface:

export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://10.42.0.49:11311
export ROS_IP=10.42.0.49

Press ctrl=X, y and then Enter to valide the filename and overwrite the file.

Type sudo reboot to reboot the robot and wait for it to be up again.

1.3 Local workstation ROS config

A setup script start.bash configures the environment variables for you every time you want to work with your EDo. It adds a yellow-coloured prefix to your prompt with the name of the right ROS master URI when enabled.

roscd edo_control
./start.bash

Check that everything is fine: If this command returns the message below, you're done for the ROS network configuration!

[http://10.42.0.49:11311] me@workstation :~$ rostopic echo /machine_state -n1
current_state: 0
opcode: 0

2. Let's start MoveIt with the actual eDO

2.1. Calibration procedure is compulsory after any robot boot

 roslaunch edo_control calibrate.launch

You should first see a JOINT_UNCALIBRATED warning message and then the explanations for the calibration procedure. Follow the instructions every time you see Calibrating joint X, press left and right arrow keys to align the joint center marker and press Enter to switch to the next joint.

Go on with the entire calibration before continuing.

2.2 Start MoveIt

roslaunch edo_moveit demo.launch

You can then use the regular MoveIt GUI or generate your own trajectories:

1. In the Motion Planning widget located at the bottom left of the RVIz window, select tab Planning
2. In the 3D robot view, move the blue ball corresponding to the end effector somewhere in space
3. The orange robot configuration is your new position target, move or rotate it as you want
4. Click Plan and Execute to start moving your real robot at this position

2.3 Open and close the gripper

Only the 2-finger electric gripper is supported in this package. You can publish true for opening the gripper (60mm range) and false for closing the gripper (0mm range) on the following topic:

rostopic pub /open_gripper std_msgs/Bool "data: true"

Important warnings

Here are the big missing features and some clues if you want to implemente them:

• Control won't work without the electric gripper mounted. TODO: Update the joint_mask data field everywhere: joint_mask = 127 means that 7 joints are mounted (joint 7 is the gripper).

Troubleshooting

Motor brakes activate randomly when the robot is moving

If your trajectory is interrupted by sudden activation of motor brakes followed by automatic brake desengaging and operation resuming, make sure your robot has been calibrated carefully and precisely. Otherwise you might have sollicited too much your motors (too much force or too fast).