Robot Manipulator

This Repository contains a robot manipulator from scratch.

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Change Logs :

0.0.1

• Added the package in catkin_ ws with a package name arm_a

catkin_create_pkg arm_a roscpp rospy urdf

• Added a folder named urdf
• Added arm.xacro (xacro is xml macro)

0.0.2

• Adding the links in xacro file
• started with the base link
• visual part contains collision, roll-pitch-yaw, inertia

0.0.3

• Added the xacro file.
• Added description of base link and link 1 along with there joints.
• Joints appear in the middle of links.
• Added a rviz launch file.

catkin build
roslaunch arm_a arm_rviz.launch

• Refer to the Video 1.

0.0.4

• Saved the rviz configs in the launch folder as config.rviz
• For showing the saved rviz config during roslaunch we have to add some lines in ros launch file

<node name="rviz" pkg="rviz" type="rviz" args=" -d $(find arm_a)/launch/config.rviz"/>

• After that :

roslaunch arm_a arm_rviz.launch

0.0.5

• Added a xacro macro file named link_joint.xacro
• This file contains the links and joint definition as a function
• In arm_b.xacro we are just calling those function from the link_joint.xacro file and using them.
• Need to include this file in arm_b.xacro

<xacro:include filename = "$(find arm_a)/urdf/link_joint.xacro" />

• Made the file name change in the launch file.
• After that :

roslaunch arm_a arm_rviz.launch

• Refer to the Video 2.

0.0.6

• Added a file named robot_parameters.xacro.
• this file contains the name of the links and joints as parameters.
• used "${link_name}" to get the link name from the xacro file.
• So if we need to change the name or the parameters we have to that in that specific file only.

0.0.7

• Added the intertia and collision parameters in the xacro file
• inertia and collision properties depend on the robot model we are making.
• After that added a spawn.launch file to launch gazebo simulation.
• After that :

roslaunch arm_a spawn.launch
rosrun gazebo_ros gazebo

• Refer to Image 2.
• The links have fallen down because stil there is no controller initialized.

0.0.8

• Kept only 3 links and 2 joints to apply controller.
• Added an allias in .bashrc and source .bashrc to kill th previous gzclient and gzserver since the model was not updating.

alias killg='killall gzclient && killall gzserver && killall rosmaster'

0.0.9

• Added transmission in arm_b.xacro file for the joints to implement controllers.
• Made changes in the dependencies in CMakeLists.txt and package.xml
• Added dependencies of joint state publisher, robot state publisher, controller manager.
• Made changes in the spawn.launch file to include controller_manager
• Encapsulated launch file inside a group tag.
• Added joints.yaml in the config folder
• joints.yaml contains the controller properties and names.
• Added a gazebo plugin in arm_b.xacro file named gazebo_ros_control.
• After that :

roscore
rosrun gazebo_ros gazebo
roslaunch arm_a spawn.launch
rostopic list
rostopic pub -1 /arm/joint2_position_controller/command std_msgs/Float64 "data: 0.7"
rostopic pub -1 /arm/joint1_position_controller/command std_msgs/Float64 "data: 1"

• Refer to Video 3

0.0.10

• Added transmission properties in link_joint.xacro file
• Added node for rqt
• Added transmission for all the other joints.
• Reduced the mass of the links and inertia.
• Added lower and upper limit of the robot movement.
• After that :

roscore
rosrun gazebo_ros gazebo
roslaunch arm_a spawn.launch
rostopic list

• Then use the rqt_publisher to give the values to links and plot juggler to view it.
• Refer to Video 4.

0.0.11

• Added a mesh folder in the package
• Added a .stl file to that folder.
• Changed the link 1 with the added mesh.
• Commented out the other links.
• After that :

roscore
rosrun gazebo_ros gazebo
roslaunch arm_a spawn.launch

• Then use the rqt_publisher to give the values to links and plot juggler to view it.
• Refer to Video 5.
• Next is to add an end effector mesh.
• Add depth camera to the arm.
• Implement Forward and Inverse Kinematics on the Arm
• Study more on the Moment of Inertia along different axes.

0.0.12

• Added another new link and made the joint fixed.
• This link is to hold the depth camera in position.
• Was tweeking with the pid values of the joint controller to give a efficient control.
• Refer to Image 3

1.0.0

• Starting with Depth Camera Integration in the Manipulator.
• Cloned the repositories for real sense.
• Repo1 : https://github.com/pal-robotics/realsense_gazebo_plugin
• Repo2 : https://github.com/issaiass/realsense2_description
• After that :

cd catkin_ws
catkin build
source devel/setup.bash
roslaunch realsense2_description view_d435_model_rviz_gazebo.launch

• Refer to Image 4.

1.0.1

• Added a new xacro file named arm_c.xacro for adding depth camera.
• Included the file from realsnse2_description package to use the depth camera in my project.

<xacro:include filename = "$(find realsense2_description)/urdf/_d435.urdf.xacro"

• Then added :

<xacro:sensor_d435 name="camera" topics_ns="camera" parent="${l05}" publish_pointcloud="true">
  <origin xyz="-0.2 0 0.1" rpy="0 -1.57 0" />
</xacro:sensor_d435>

• The origin xyz and rpy needs to be changed accordingly to fit in our previous model.

1.0.2

• After making all the changes in .xacro file, we need to make changes to the launch file to launch the changed xacro.
• After that :

roscore
rosrun gazebo_ros gazebo
roslaunch arm_a spawn.launch
rostopic list
rosrun image_view image_view image:=/camera/depth/image_raw
roslaunch arm_a arm_rviz.launch

• Refer to Video 6 and Image 5,6.

1.0.3

• Added two new links to the robot model which will act as grippers.
• Added the prismatic joints for the grippers.
• Made changes in the joints.yaml and also launch file.
• Added joint8_position_controller.
• Added a folder named scripts.
• Added a python script named grip.py for controlling the grippers.

roscore
rosrun gazebo_ros gazebo
roslaunch arm_a spawn.launch
cd catkin_ws/src/arm_a/scripts
python3 grip.py

• Refer to Video 7.

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Images :

Image 1 :

Image 2 :

Image 3:

Image 4:

Image 5:

Image 6:

Vidoes :

Video 1 :

v1.mp4

Video 2 :

v2.mp4

Video 3 :

v3.mp4

Video 4 :

v4.mp4

Video 5 :

v5.mp4

Video 6 :

v6.mp4

Video 7 :

v7.mp4