Time needed for complete urdf model?

Question

Hi,

I would like to make a URDF model of a robot to simulate it in Gazebo. However, it seems like a lot of work to do this model from scratch. I know that there a very good tutorial exists, but is there like a database of existing URDF models from which we could start with? I know about the erratic and the PR2 robot, are thee some others?

Also, from your point of view, how much time of work is needed to make a complete model of a robot with 4 wheels, 1 arm, 1 camera, 1 Hokuyo, some bumper sensors and some infrared sensors?

Thank you so much for your precious help,

Regards, Morgan

---

Originally posted by MorganCormier on ROS Answers with karma: 53 on 2011-11-30

Post score: 1

Answer 1

I can't really help as far as time... but here are some examples: http://www.ros.org/wiki/urdf/Examples

---

Originally posted by fergs with karma: 13902 on 2011-11-30

This answer was ACCEPTED on the original site

Post score: 5

---

Original comments

Comment by MorganCormier on 2011-12-01:
Thank you! I can't believe I missed this link in the urdf main page.

Answer 2

Theoretically, I think you could build the model in an hour or two. However, that depends on a lot of things, chief among them, whether you know all of the measurements of your robot. Also, whether you build your robot from the simple shapes (cylinder, sphere, box) or want meshes.

---

Originally posted by David Lu with karma: 10932 on 2011-11-30

This answer was NOT ACCEPTED on the original site

Post score: 2

---

Original comments

Comment by MorganCormier on 2011-12-01:
I think I can get the measurements without too much troubles. I would prefer to have meshes, I think the result will be better, especially for the arm and the gripper. After looking a little more at the details of the urdf package, I you made a good estimation, if I do some very simple shapes only.

Answer 3

If you had access to the software (and had a working CAD model of your robot), you could use simmechanics_to_urdf to go directly to URDF.

As that might not be the case, you could try the Guardian stack. This is a four-wheeled robot with a hokuyo and accelerometer model already included. If your robot is skid-steered, the Guardian provides you with an example of how to model those physics in Gazebo.

For the bump sensors and the IR sensors, you might have to do some extra research.

Here is an example of a bump sensor.

Here is an implementation of an IR sensor. If that doesn't work, you could try this question.

Here is an example of the pr2's Prosilica camera that you could use.

---

Originally posted by DimitriProsser with karma: 11163 on 2011-12-01

This answer was NOT ACCEPTED on the original site

Post score: 3

---

Original comments

Comment by MorganCormier on 2011-12-01:
Thank you so much for those details!