ROS 3d modelling learning

7 -DOF(7 degrees of freedom)

TOOLS:

urdf

A ros package using .xml file to illustrate a robot model.

labels

1. link : To build a link for robots.

<link name="<name>">
<inertial> ... </inertial>
<visual>...</visual>  //visual for the link in real world
<collision>...</collision> // For area to detect for possible collision
</link>

2. joint: Used to connect two links

<joint name=''<name>''>
<parent link="link1"/>
<child link="link2"/>
...
</joint>

Note : For coordinates; the joints are located in parent link coordinate, the child coordinate is the link coordinate.
3. robot: To illustrate the robot name, joints, links

<robot name="<name>">
<link> ... </link>
<joint> ... </joint>
</robot>

4. gazebo: If gazebo simulators is used then use gazebo tag to include referenced parts.

<gazebo reference="link_name">
<material>Gazebo/Black</material>
</gazebo>

Turn to urdf XML for more labels.

Before the start:

First, make sure urdf and xacro are installed

sudo apt-get install ros-melodic-urdf
sudo apt-get install ros-melodic-xacro

Then, in any of your work space, create a new working package depending on

roscpp  urdf  xacro rviz  geometry_msgs tf

Two ways to define a Robot

1. urdf : Easy to understand, like xml file using tag to define.
2. xacro: Looks like urdf, could define a macro and using parameters to replace macros. Macros could have arithmetical operations but pow and modular are not supported.

// xacro to urdf inside the launch file
<param name="robot_description" command="$(find xacro)/xacro --inorder $(find your_ros_pkg)/xacro/your.xacro" 
/>

During the projects

1. To check the urdf file and generate arm structure.

check_urdf name.urdf
urdf_to_graphiz name.urdf
evince arm.pdf