A ROS2 Interface for Universal Robots Collaborative Manipulators Based on ur rtde

ROS2 driver based on ur_rtde for Universal Robot collaborative manipulators. The software was developed within RIMLab, the robotic laboratory of the University of Parma.

This project is currently under development, with ongoing updates and enhancements planned for the future. If you have any thoughts or feedback about the software, feel free to send an email at alessio.saccuti@unipr.it.

Use this software with caution. The developers are not responsible for any damages or injuries that may result from its use.

Capabilities of ur_ros_rtde

• Reception of various data (joint states, forces, torques, etc.) which is made available in topics and as services.
• High-level URScript commands are exposed as action servers (MoveL, MoveJ, etc.)
• Composite commands, such as trajectory execution or moving the robot linearly until a force is detected, are also exposed as action servers.
• New commands can be added thanks to a plugin system.
• Easy integration with ROS-based tools such as RViz or MoveIt.

Contents of ur_ros_rtde

• ur_ros_rtde) core implementation of the driver. It includes the implementation of the following ROS2 nodes:
  • RobotStateReceiver: retrieves the robot state.
  • CommandServer: exposes high-level URScript commands as actions.
  • DashboardServer: exposes commands related to Dashboard Client interface.
• ur_ros_rtde_msgs) ROS2 package containing the definition of:
  • messages and services advertised by RobotStateReceiver
  • actions exposed by CommandServer
  • actions exposed by DashboardServer
• ur_ros_rtde_simple_clients) ROS2 package containing the definition of basic service and action clients.
• ur_ros_rtde_gripper_commands) Example of ROS2 package that extends the ur_ros_rtde features by defining new plugins for managing external hardware devices.
• simple_ur10e_description: example of a ROS2 description package containing meshes, xacro and urdf files. The package is a simplified version of this repository, but specific for UR10e.
• simple_ur10e_moveit_config) example of MoveIt! configuration package generated with moveit_setup_assistant for the UR10e robot described in simple_ur10e_description.
• ur_ros_rtde_tutorials) Package containing usage examples.

Setup ur_ros_rtde

To utilize the proposed software, you need to install ur_rtde and ROS2.

Install ur_rtde:

You can install ur_rtde running:

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sdurobotics/ur-rtde
  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt install librtde librtde-dev
  

Alternatively, you can manually build it:

  git clone https://gitlab.com/sdurobotics/ur_rtde.git
  cd ur_rtde
  git submodule update --init --recursive
  mkdir build
  cd build
  cmake ..
  make 
  sudo make install
  

Install Robot Operating System 2 (ROS2)

This version of ur_ros_rtde has been tested with ROS2 Humble (installation guide).

Additionally, install the following packages:

  sudo apt install python3-colcon-common-extensions
  sudo apt-get install ros-humble-controller-manager
  sudo apt install ros-humble-xacro 
  

(Optional) Install MoveIt!:

The data retrieved by RobotStateReceiver ROS2 node in ur_ros_rtde can be used with the MoveIt! framework.

  sudo apt install ros-humble-moveit
  echo "export LC_NUMERIC=en_US.UTF-8" >> ~/.bashrc
  (optional)
  sudo apt install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-rmw-cyclonedds-cpp
  echo "export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_cyclonedds_cpp" >> ~/.bashrc
  

Install ur_ros_rtde

cd <ros_workspace_path>/src
# clone ur_ros_rtde repository
git clone https://github.com/SuperDiodo/ur_ros_rtde.git
cd ..
# build ur_ros_rtde only (optional packages will be ignored)
colcon build --symlink-install --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release --packages-up-to ur_ros_rtde
# or build the entire workspace
colcon build --symlink-install --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

Use the driver

In ur_ros_rtde ROS2 package are provided simple launch files which can be configured based on the needs:

• ur_ros_rtde/launch/robot_state_receiver.launch.py: launch the RobotStateReceiver node.
• ur_ros_rtde/launch/command_server.launch.py: launch the CommandServer node.
• ur_ros_rtde/launch/dashboard_server.launch.py: launch the DashboardServer node.

Tutorials on how use these files and run examples are provided in ur_ros_rtde_tutorials. In ur_ros_rtde_gripper_commands there is the implementation of commands that can be used to control an OnRobot soft gripper.