Hello all,
I'm trying to do something that I think is very basic but running into all kinds of trouble. System is Ubuntu 16.04 with ROS Kinetic. I want to define my robot (a drone) with the following file: sample_drone.urdf.xacro
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<robot name="test_drone" xmlns:xacro="http://ros.org/wiki/xacro">
<!-- Load up the base pieces -->
<xacro:include filename="xacro_modules/base_link.xacro"/>
<xacro:include filename="xacro_modules/fiveinch_chasis.xacro"/>
<!-- Right now just testing having a camera -->
<xacro:include filename="xacro_modules/orbbec_astra.xacro"/>
<xacro:orbbec_astra parent="five_inch_chasis" x="0.15" y="0.0" side="1.0"/>
</robot>
And for reference, the astra file looks like: orbbec_astra.xacro:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xacro:macro name="orbbec_astra" params="parent x y side">
<!-- Actual link -->
<link name="orbbec_astra">
<visual>
<geometry>
<!-- TODO: replace with the actual mesh here -->
<box size="0.083 0.058 0.020"/>
</geometry>
<origin xyz="0 0 0" rpy="0 0 0"/>
</visual>
<collision>
<geometry>
<box size="0.083 0.058 0.020"/>
</geometry>
<origin xyz="0 0 0" rpy="0 0 0"/>
</collision>
<inertial>
<mass value="0.038"/>
<inertia ixx="1.0" ixy="0.0" ixz="0.0" iyy="1.0" iyz="0.0" izz="1.0" />
</inertial>
</link>
<!-- Connecting Joint -->
<joint name="${parent}_to_astra" type="fixed">
<parent link="${parent}"/>
<child link="orbbec_astra"/>
<origin xyz="${x} ${y} ${ (0.01 + (drone_thickness/2.0) )*side}" rpy="${ (side-1)*(pi/2.0) } 0 0"/>
</joint>
</xacro:macro>
I've tried several different tweaks to this, but everything seems to run into some kind of error. Is there any way I can include the orbbec_astra.xacro without having it automatically expand (and thus fail because it has no parameters) and then call the macro with the required parameters?
Edit: For more clarification, I am running
rosrun xacro xacro.py sample_drone.urdf.xacro > sample_drone.urdf
With the code I've shown above, I get the following errors:
xacro: Traditional processing is deprecated. Switch to --inorder processing!
To check for compatibility of your document, use option --check-order.
For more infos, see http://wiki.ros.org/xacro#Processing_Order
name 'parent' is not defined
when evaluating expression 'parent'
when processing file: sample_drone.urdf.xacro
Which makes sense, because it seems to try expanding the astra macro completely.
Now if I remove the line
<xacro:orbbec_astra parent="five_inch_chasis" x="0.15" y="0.0" side="1.0"/>
from the top-level file and instead try to pass parameters to the include such as like:
<xacro:include filename="xacro_modules/orbbec_astra.xacro" parent="five_inch_chasis"/>
I get errors that parent is not a known parameter (makes sense, that's not what xacro knows about).
Edit: [Answer]: Including the robot tag in the astra macro has resolved the issue.
Originally posted by Chuples on ROS Answers with karma: 3 on 2018-07-23
Post score: 0
Original comments
Comment by gvdhoorn on 2018-07-23:\
but everything seems to run into some kind of error
would you agree it would probably be a lot easier for us to help you if we could actually see those errors?
Comment by Chuples on 2018-07-23:
I've edited the original message to be more clear.
Comment by gvdhoorn on 2018-07-23:
I've re-opened the question: we don't normally close questions here on ROS Answers if they've actually been answered. Ticking the checkmark to the left of the correct answer indicates much more clearly that a question has been answered.
