abb_robot_bringup_examples

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 ROS nodes included in abb_robot_driver can only interact with ABB robots that are supported by these interfaces:

• Robot Web Services (RWS) 1.0:
  • Available in IRC5 controllers with RobotWare 6 systems.
  • RWS is independent of robot type.
• Externally Guided Motion (EGM):
  • Requires the RobotWare 6 option Externally Guided Motion (689-1).
  • EGM is only available for 6 and 7 axes robots.

The following examples illustrates how to bringup the ROS nodes for a few different use cases, namely:

Please inspect the files in the launch and config folders for more details about respective example.

Examples

Please note that it is recommended to try out the examples against RobotStudio simulations before testing with real robots.

Example 1: “ex1_rws_only”

• The RWS components are independent of robot type.

Steps

1. Start 3 terminals.
2. [Terminal 1] Launch the example:

   roslaunch abb_robot_bringup_examples ex1_rws_only.launch robot_ip:=<robot controller's IP address>
   

1. [Terminal 2] Use rostopic to, for example, list available topics and then listen for general robot controller states:

   rostopic list
   rostopic echo -c /rws/system_states
   

1. [Terminal 3] Use rosservice to, for example, list available services and then stop, reset and start the RAPID execution:

   rosservice list
   rosservice call /rws/stop_rapid "{}"
   rosservice call /rws/pp_to_main "{}"
   rosservice call /rws/start_rapid "{}"
   

Example 2: “ex2_rws_and_egm_6axis_robot”

• EGM usage is only recommended for advanced users:
  • Please be careful when sending motion commands! The robot will respond immediately.
• Assumptions:
  • A 6-axes robot is used.
  • The EGM RobotWare option is present in the robot controller system.
  • The RobotWare StateMachine Add-In was used when installing the robot controller system.
• Impactful EGM RAPID arguments:
  • The \MaxSpeedDeviation argument of EGMActJoint (e.g. limits EGM references on the robot controller side).
  • The \PosCorrGain argument of EGMRunJoint (e.g. needs to be 0 for pure velocity control).
• The ros_control controller, which command motions, is only allowed to start if an EGM session is active.

Steps

1. Start 4 terminals.
2. [Terminal 1] Launch the example:

   roslaunch abb_robot_bringup_examples ex2_rws_and_egm_6axis_robot.launch robot_ip:=<robot controller's IP address>
   

1. [Terminal 2] Use rostopic to listen for EGM channel states:

   rostopic echo -c /egm/egm_states
   

1. [Terminal 3] Use rosservice to restart RAPID, and then start an EGM session:

   rosservice call /rws/stop_rapid "{}"
   rosservice call /rws/pp_to_main "{}"
   rosservice call /rws/start_rapid "{}"
   rosservice call /rws/sm_addin/start_egm_joint "{}"
   

1. [Terminal 3] Use rosservice to start the ros_control command controller (requires a running EGM session):

   rosservice call /egm/controller_manager/switch_controller "start_controllers: [joint_group_velocity_controller]
   stop_controllers: ['']
   strictness: 1
   start_asap: false
   timeout: 0.0"
   

1. [Terminal 4] Use rostopic to publish velocity commands for the sixth joint:

   rostopic pub /egm/joint_group_velocity_controller/command std_msgs/Float64MultiArray "data: [0,0,0,0,0,0.1]"
   

1. [Terminal 3] Use rosservice to stop the EGM session:

   rosservice call /rws/sm_addin/stop_egm "{}"
   

Example 3: “ex3_rws_and_egm_yumi_robot”

• EGM usage is only recommended for advanced users:
  • Please be careful when sending motion commands! The robot will respond immediately.
• Assumptions:
  • A YuMi robot is used.
  • The EGM RobotWare option is present in the robot controller system.
  • The RobotWare StateMachine Add-In was used when installing the robot controller system.
• Impactful EGM RAPID arguments:
  • The \MaxSpeedDeviation argument of EGMActJoint (e.g. limits EGM references on the robot controller side).
  • The \PosCorrGain argument of EGMRunJoint (e.g. needs to be 0 for pure velocity control).
• The ros_control controller, which command motions, is only allowed to start if an EGM session is active.
• The ROS nodes are launched in an separate namespace /yumi (i.e. it is good practice to do so):
  • Inspect the example launch file, and corresponding configurations files, to see the impact of a separate namespace.

Steps

1. Start 4 terminals.
2. [Terminal 1] Launch the example:

   roslaunch abb_robot_bringup_examples ex3_rws_and_egm_yumi_robot.launch robot_ip:=<robot controller's IP address>
   

1. [Terminal 2] Use rostopic to listen for EGM channel states:

   rostopic echo -c /yumi/egm/egm_states
   

1. [Terminal 3] Use rosservice to restart RAPID, and then start an EGM session:

   rosservice call /yumi/rws/stop_rapid "{}"
   rosservice call /yumi/rws/pp_to_main "{}"
   rosservice call /yumi/rws/start_rapid "{}"
   rosservice call /yumi/rws/sm_addin/start_egm_joint "{}"
   

1. [Terminal 3] Use rosservice to start the ros_control command controller (requires a running EGM session):

   rosservice call /yumi/egm/controller_manager/switch_controller "start_controllers: [joint_group_velocity_controller]
   stop_controllers: ['']
   strictness: 1
   start_asap: false
   timeout: 0.0"
   

1. [Terminal 4] Use rostopic to publish velocity commands for the seventh joint (on each arm):

   rostopic pub /yumi/egm/joint_group_velocity_controller/command std_msgs/Float64MultiArray "data: [0,0,0,0,0,0,-0.1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0.1]"
   

1. [Terminal 3] Use rosservice to stop the EGM session:

   rosservice call /yumi/rws/sm_addin/stop_egm "{}"
   

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.