Mirobot ROS packages

This is the Mirobot ROS package designed by Thor Zhou. email:[email protected] These packages support Moveit!, RViz and serial communication with Mirobot.

1. Download and install

Download ros packages for mirobot

then manually copy package folders mirobot_urdf_2 mirobot_moveit_config and mirobot_gazebo into a catkin_ws/src.

Install ros serial package

$ sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-serial

Compile

$ catkin_make

2. Set up enviroment

Source all setup.bash files to set up your enviroment.

# System configure ROS environment variables automatically every time you open a ternimal
echo "source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

3. Simulation and Control

Before ROS control, make sure that your manipulator is in the "homing" position. Connect your mirobot to computer and get USB permission to access mirobot

$ sudo chmod +777 /dev/ttyUSB0

If you are using a virtual machine running Linux, turn off graphics hardware acceleration, otherwise gazebo may not start properly.

3.1 Rviz Control Mode:

Show the xacro model of mirobot in rviz, then drag the scroll bar of each axis in rviz to control the movement of the manipulator.

roslaunch mirobot_urdf_2 display.launch

3.2 Moveit+gazebo Control Mode:

First, install ros_controller by:

$ sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-ros-control ros-kinetic-ros-controllers

Install Moveit! by:

$ sudo apt install ros-kinetic-moveit

Install Gazebo_ros_pkgs by:

$ sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-gazebo-ros-pkgs ros-kinetic-gazebo-ros-control

Note, if your ROS version is not kinetic, in the above commands, replace kinetic with your ROS version, e.g. noetic.

Then, display the mirobot model in rviz and gazebo by using the rviz interface of moveit to drag the manipulator for motion planning, click the "execute" button in moveit, and control the virtual manipulator in gazebo to move with the external real manipulator.

roslaunch mirobot_gazebo mirobot_bringup_moveit.launch

4. Experiment demos:

Watch the tutorials here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acSDDzRKDmg&list=PLrf9BLY5v4umZRIOZqtVRDmIpB0PcmTDz

Find out the experiment demo source code (ROS_experiment_topic of the experiment, ...) from the above file list.