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I have a Gazebo Garden simulation and I struggle to make it work with Gazebo plugins for the URDF file.

Context

I have a URDF file of my robot, but I first could not find an obvious way to make it work in Gazebo Garden, so I created a simplified SDF version of the robot.

I first made the simulation work with an SDF file for the robot, but I could not get it to work with the robot_state_publisher. I could not find any example of how to publish the robot_description and the tf from Gazebo directly so I could use it without launching the robot_state_publisher manually through a ROS 2 launch file. (I wanted to avoid this as then I needed to recreate my SDF file as URDF file to give it to the state publisher node.

I then figured out how to use the URDF version of my model and I made a launch file that loads the URDF of the robot and gives it to Gazebo. The simulation launches fine, the robot model is there, and I can use the robot_state_publisher to get the proper tf of the robot and the robot_description.

BUT: I fail to load any plugins written inside the URDF file since I can't find any examples on how to do this.

Current state

I found this comment that I could load the plugins the same way as I would in the classic Gazebo: https://github.com/gazebosim/ros_gz/issues/109

I receive the following error messages related to my problem:

[ruby $(which gz) sim-1] [Wrn] [SystemPaths.cc:168] Finding plugins using deprecated IGN_ prefixed environment variable [IGN_GAZEBO_SYSTEM_PLUGIN_PATH]. Please use the GZ_ prefix instead.
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1] [Err] [SystemLoader.cc:118] Failed to load system plugin: (Reason: Could not find shared library)
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1] - Requested plugin name: [camera_controller]
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1] - Requested library name: [libgazebo_ros_camera.so]
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1] - Library search paths:
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1]   - /home/leo/.gz/sim/plugins/
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1]   - /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gz-sim-7/plugins/
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1]   - /home/leo/.ignition/gazebo/plugins/
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1]   - /
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1]   - /home/leo/ros2_ws/install/sdformat_urdf/lib/
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1]   - /home/leo/ros2_ws/install/ros_gz_sim/lib/
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1]   - /home/leo/ros2_ws/install/ros_gz_bridge/lib/
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1]   - /home/leo/ros2_ws/install/ros_gz_interfaces/lib/
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1]   - /opt/ros/humble/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1]   - /opt/ros/humble/lib/
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1]   - (Deprecated) /
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1]   - (Deprecated) /home/leo/ros2_ws/install/sdformat_urdf/lib/
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1]   - (Deprecated) /home/leo/ros2_ws/install/ros_gz_sim/lib/
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1]   - (Deprecated) /home/leo/ros2_ws/install/ros_gz_bridge/lib/
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1]   - (Deprecated) /home/leo/ros2_ws/install/ros_gz_interfaces/lib/
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1]   - (Deprecated) /opt/ros/humble/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
[ruby $(which gz) sim-1]   - (Deprecated) /opt/ros/humble/lib/

Maybe the following information is important to know:

When I set the variable GZ_SIM_RESOURCE_PATH, it did not work, I also had to set the variable IGN_GAZEBO_RESOURCE_PATH for Gazebo to be able to load the robot model as URDF.

What I need

I need examples of how to add different sensors to my URDF (actually the XACRO) file. I want to add the differential drive controller to move the robot, a regular RGB camera, a depth camera and a LiDAR. They all work fine in the SDF file, but I do not know how to translate them into the URDF file.

I am using ROS 2 Humble with Gazebo Garden inside a Docker container.

My Files

My files are available for inspection on GitHub: https://github.com/Dave-van-der-Meer/leorover_gazebo_sim_docker

The latest changes are on the "add_sensors_to_URDF" branch.

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IMO, the best way to debug this is to first generate your final URDF from the xacro files and then running gz sdf -p path/to/your/urdf_file. This will generate the SDF file that Gazebo will consume when you spawn a URDF file. Also take a look at http://sdformat.org/tutorials?tut=sdformat_urdf_extensions&cat=specification& to see how to use the <gazebo> tag in URDF. Generally, the <gazebo> tag (without the reference attribute) is where you want to put your plugins.

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  • $\begingroup$ This is how I first created the SDF file that I made in the beginning. It required a lot of manual changes to make the SDF file work in the end. But do I understand correctly that you are suggesting I should then run the simulation with the SDF file and use the robot_state_publisher using the XACRO file? I tried to void this as it means I would need to maintain two files in parallel when I modify the robot model. $\endgroup$
    – Dave'RoboShack
    Commented Apr 13, 2023 at 8:04
  • $\begingroup$ Maintaining two files is not what you want. I was thinking you add <gazebo> tags to the original xacro file that, when converted to SDF, matches the working SDF file you've manually updated. $\endgroup$
    – azeey
    Commented Apr 13, 2023 at 15:30
  • $\begingroup$ Okay, I see. Unfortunately, when I converted the XACRO to UDF and then to SDF, I had to replace all the file paths to make it work. Also, I have no reference on how to set the <gazebo> tags/ Would they be exactly the same as in the SDF file? $\endgroup$
    – Dave'RoboShack
    Commented Apr 17, 2023 at 12:17
  • $\begingroup$ This is a good reference for using <gazebo> tags. For file path problems, take a look at gazebosim.org/api/sim/7/resources.html. Setting the GZ_SIM_RESOURCE_PATH to the directory that contains the resource should work (IGN_GAZEBO_RESOURCE_PATH if you're using Gazebo Fortress or Citadel) $\endgroup$
    – azeey
    Commented Apr 17, 2023 at 22:36
  • $\begingroup$ This link is very interesting indeed. Thanks! My major issue, though is that I cannot find how to call the plugins the right way. I read that they should be backward compatible with IGN Gazebo, but it doesn't work for me. In general, there are not many resources and I do not find the official documentation of Gazebo very user friendly and I do not make sense out of it. $\endgroup$
    – Dave'RoboShack
    Commented Apr 20, 2023 at 11:32

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