How to control robots models?

Question

Hello.

Sorry if there is an obvious answer to this question, but I did not find it after a very long search.

I would like to know how to control the robots models which are packed with Gazebo. That's easy to add them into the world, and I did not find how to go further.

I have read the tutorial of course. It looks like I have to modify the robot description to add some plugins. That makes sense for defining a new robot, but for using a model, it seems complicated.

If you could give me hint, that would be appreciated.

Thanks a lot.

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Originally posted by Arn-O on Gazebo Answers with karma: 316 on 2013-07-18

Post score: 1

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Original comments

Comment by FiliusFortunae on 2013-07-18:
I noticed that none of the robots in the library have src with them. I was looking for some working example but I am still looking. I am using ROS with the included gazebo 1.5 - I am trying to write a plugin currently and found a depreciated example: https://code.google.com/p/utexas-art-ros-pkg/source/browse/#svn%2Fbranches%2Fprojects%2Fstacks%2Fart_experimental

Answer 1

There are existing plugins in gazebo/plugins dir. An example robot that makes use of it is pioneer2dx. You can download it from the model database through the insert tab on the left. If you look at the downloaded sdf file, ~/.gazebo/models/pioneer2dx/model.sdf, it uses the differential drive plugin provided by Gazebo.

Alternatively, you can control the robot through the joint control widget which you have to drag out through the bar on the right of the gazebo window

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Originally posted by iche033 with karma: 1018 on 2013-07-18

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Post score: 1

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Original comments

Comment by Sabrina on 2013-07-22:
Hi, I am using ROS hydro, gazebo 1.9 and the corresponding gazebo_ros package. Me too, I could not find out how to control a robot. I did what you suggested and I can see a plugin tag in the model.sdf but there is not /cmd_vel topic in ROS. Btw, the model of the 2dx does not move when I set the velocity in the right bar of gazebo.

Answer 2

Hi.

To close the issue, they are several way to do that:

• develop a "Gazebo plugin", which is a C++ calling Gazebo API (answer from iche033). The robot models do not need to be modified.
• use ROS and gazebo_ros_pkgs, in this case the URDF or SDF model should be adapted, w. tags and so on, as described in the gazebo-ROS tutorial
• player and do not know how the model should be modified

Thx all again.

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Originally posted by Arn-O with karma: 316 on 2013-07-25

This answer was ACCEPTED on the original site

Post score: 0