abb_egm_hardware_interface

Please note that this package has not been productized, and that academia is the intended audience.
The package is provided “as-is”, and as such no more than limited support can be expected.

Overview

The abb_egm_hardware_interface package provides:

• A ros_control-based hardware interface, for communicating with ABB robots via the Externally Guided Motion (EGM) interface:
  • Recommendations:
    • Use RobotStudio simulations before testing with real robots.
    • Use the latest supported RobotWare version to get the best EGM performance.
  • The hardware interface sets up EGM servers that the robot can send feedback messages to, and receive motion commands from:
    • It is always the robot that initiates EGM communication sessions.
  • The hardware interface will only allow ros_control controllers to be started if there is already an active EGM communication session:
    • Users can specify a list of controllers that are always ok to start (e.g. passive state controllers).
  • For MultiMove systems it is important to note that:
    • The ROS side configurations must specify correct names for the mechanical unit groups that are intended to be used with EGM.
    • Activation/deactivation of mechanical units, after the hardware interface has been initialized, is not handled by the hardware interface and can lead to unexpected behavior.
• A ROS node that uses the hardware interface, together with a ros_control controller manager, to run a control loop.
• A ROS node for stopping ros_control controllers when EGM sessions ends:
  • Users can specify a list of controllers that are ok to keep running (e.g. passive state controllers).

Please note that this package is only recommended for advanced users.

Please see the egm_hardware_interface.launch file for how to start the node and available node parameters. Additionally, the ROS node, provided by the abb_rws_service_provider package, is required during initialization of the hardware interface.

Please see the config folder for configuration examples for a few different use cases.

Requirements

• RobotWare version 6.07.01 or higher (less than 7.0).

Please see the underlying abb_libegm and abb_librws packages for more details.

Troubleshooting

The following table is non-exhaustive, but it should at least give some ideas for things to check.

Acknowledgements

ROSIN Project

The core development has been made within the European Union's Horizon 2020 project: ROSIN - ROS-Industrial Quality-Assured Robot Software Components (see http://rosin-project.eu for more info).

The ROSIN project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 732287.

The opinions expressed here reflects only the author’s view and reflects in no way the European Commission’s opinions. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the contained information.

Special Thanks

Special thanks to gavanderhoorn for guidance with open-source practices and conventions.