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Boxbot

Summary

This repository contains the ROS packages needed for the simulation of "Boxbot", a simple dual-armed robot consisting of two WidowX robotic arms attached to a simple "torso". Included is a URDF model of the robot, along with corresponding ros-control and Gazebo interfaces.

Recommended OS/Programs

This software was developed and tested in:

  • Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
  • ROS Kinetic
  • Gazebo 7.13.0

Installation

To install the current version of the repository to your machine, change directory into the desired catkin workspace source directory and clone the repository.

Usage

RViz

To launch a model of the robot in RViz from the top level directory, use:

roslaunch boxbot_description rviz.launch

Currently, you will manually have to add the robot model to the RViz window.

Gazebo

To launch an empty world with only the Boxbot robot in it, use:

roslaunch boxbot_gazebo empty_world.launch

Some other scenarios are included that were used to test dual-arm manipulation in simulation.

Model Editing

If you want to edit the URDF model, only modify the files that end with .urdf.xacro or .gazebo, found in the boxbot_description/robots and boxbot_description/urdf folders. Generally, you will not want to edit the .urdf files directly, as they are auto-generated and are also harder to sift through than the subcomponent files.

After you are done editing, you can regenerate the complete urdf model by switching into the boxbot_description package directory, and running the autogeneration script:

./urdf_regen.sh

Notes

  • During initial testing of the physical Boxbot system, it was found that the first shoulder joint of the WidowX arm (joint_1) has problems holding up the wieght of the arm, sporadically shutting down due to what appears to be overload. In response, the shoulder joint is being redesigned to utilize a larger and more capable servo.

License:

All new packages/files use the BSD 3-clause license presented in the main license file, and are Copyright (C) University of Cincinnati.

Exceptions include the whole of boxbot_description/meshes and some of the contents of boxbot_description/urdf, which are based on files from Interbotix's widowx_arm repository. Copyright for these are held by others, as reflected in the commit history for the original files. All modifications are Copyright (C) University of Cincinnati