SIMOD Set-up

Running both ROS1 and ROS2 with Bridge

1. Prepare docker-compose

Assuming all the necessary dependencies are met, the file docker compose must be modified in order to result in a working environment.

Lines 23, 44 and 70 must be edited with the correct path ( <user_path_to_directory> ); paths must be absolute.

Once the path is set up correctly, run the following command to avoid temporarily rewriting the the one in the repo once you commit the changes:

git update-index --assume-unchanged docker-compose-gui.yml

1. Building

Build the Docker container with

docker compose -f docker-compose-gui.yml build

Should a permission denied error appear, that is because the current user has no sudo permissions granted for docker. Simply adding sudo before the command should fix this issue.

2. Starting

Allow the containers to display contents on your host machine by typing

xhost +local:root

Then start the setup with:

docker compose -f docker-compose-gui.yml up

Terminator GUI will open up with the Docker container running inside it and the ros1 and ros2 environments already sourced.

2.1 Starting a single container

To start a single container, simply run the following (change the <options> into one of the followings: ros1_simod, bridge_simod, ros2_simod):

docker compose -f docker-compose-gui.yml up <options>

2.2 Nvidia GPU hardware acceleration

Some machines may use a setup with a dual GPU combo (Integrated + Dedicated Nvidia Cards). To use the Nvidia graphics card as the rendering device, a few requirements must be met:

2.2.1 Nvidia Container Toolkit

To install this tool, you need to:

Configure the production repository

curl -fsSL https://nvidia.github.io/libnvidia-container/gpgkey | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/nvidia-container-toolkit-keyring.gpg \
  && curl -s -L https://nvidia.github.io/libnvidia-container/stable/deb/nvidia-container-toolkit.list | \
    sed 's#deb https://#deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/nvidia-container-toolkit-keyring.gpg] https://#g' | \
    sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nvidia-container-toolkit.list

Update

sudo apt-get update

Install Nvidia Container Toolkit

sudo apt-get install -y nvidia-container-toolkit

Configure Docker

sudo nvidia-ctk runtime configure --runtime=docker

Restart Docker Service

sudo systemctl restart docker

Uncomment lines 9,14,15,56,60,61 in docker-compose-gui.ymls

Further information can be found at the official Nvidia Container Toolkit installation page.

3. ROS2 Simulation

At first start ( with docker compose -f docker-compose-gui.yml up ros2_simod), it will be necessary to build the workspace:

cd ./src
rosdep install -r --from-paths . --ignore-src -y
cd ..
MAKEFLAGS="-j4 -l1" colcon build --symlink-install --executor sequential
pip install trimesh pycollada
apt install ros-humble-tf-transformations

These commands allow the resolution of dependencies and compilation of the workspace, including Moveit2 Framework. Note: during compilation of "moveit_simple_controller_manager", an error regarding the lack of a package may appear:

"simod_moveit_action_controller: package not found". The package is present, but for some reason not yet built. Running:

colcon build --symlink-install --packages-select simod_moveit_action_controller

should fix this issue. After building, to start the simulation environment, simply:

source install/setup.bash
ros2 launch ur main.launch.py usecase:=1_1

The argument usecase defines which of the usecases considered is loaded into gazebo. There are 6 possible combinations:

usecase:=1_1
usecase:=1_2
usecase:=2_1
usecase:=2_2
usecase:=3_1
usecase:=3_2

This is done to the reflect the possibility of 2 layers of packages to be picked, as the structure ceiling changes. Since the amount of messages flooding the console will be considerable, it is advisable to redirect all output to a log file with &> userlogname.log. Also, it is possible to launch a single robot in the simulation with:

ros2 launch ur new_single.launch.py robot:=left gazebo:=true

the arguments robot and gazebo select which robot is to be loaded and if the simulation tools are needed to be launched. The argument gazebo must be true, otherwise gazebo and rviz won't load; also, at the moment, only the left robot will not cause Moveit to complain in the logs.

Bridge Container

This container operates the ros1 bridge. It has to be compiled.

colcon build --symlink-install --packages-skip ros1_bridge
source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash
source /opt/ros/foxy/setup.bash
colcon build --symlink-install --packages-select ros1_bridge --cmake-force-configure

1° Terminale

source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash
roscore 

3° Terminale

# source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash
# . install/setup.bash
# export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_fastrtps_cpp
source bridge_setup.bash


* prima di questo comando eseguire ROS1_DOCKER
ros2 run ros1_bridge parameter_bridge

ROS1_DOCKER CONTAINER

*solo la prima volta che si compila il workspace

colcon build

. install/setup.bash
roslaunch summit_xl_gazebo parameter.launch 
roslaunch summit_xl_gazebo environment.launch

4. Useful topics

• ${NAMESPACE}/odom : da cui si ricava la posizione della base rispetto al mondo.
• ${NAMESPACE}/cmd_vel : controllo in velocità

Per pubblicare da terminale, c'è un problema di autocompletamento del messaggio:

ex. ros2 topic pub /right_summit/cmd_vel geometry_msgs/msg/Twist msg

(ros2 topic pub ${NOME_TOPIC} ${TIPO DEL MESSAGGIO} ${MSG})

per ottenere il messaggio, Tab+si vede la prima lettera del messaggio+"prima lettere+Tab

Running only ROS2 environment

If not yet built, run:

sudo docker compose -f docker-compose-gui.yml build

Then, allow the containers to display contents on your host machine by typing

xhost +local:root

Starting a single container

To start only the container for ros2, run the following:

sudo docker compose -f docker-compose-gui.yml up ros2_simod

To restart the previous session use instead:

sudo docker start -ai simod_docker-ros2_simod-1

using the appropriate name of the container you created. You can check it with:

sudo docker ps -a

Now a new terminal running the docker container prepared with ROS2 and Gazebo should appear. The current position correspond to the ROS2 workspace ros2_ws. Now, we can run the software inside this environment.

Only The first time you compile the workspace with:

MAKEFLAGS="-j4 -l1" colcon build --symlink-install --executor sequential

This will also compile and Install Moveit2. Before starting the scripts, you need to source the bash files:

# . install/setup.bash
# export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_fastrtps_cpp
# . /usr/share/gazebo/setup.bash

source ros2_setup.bash
source install/setup.bash #allows autocomplete

Finally, we can run the application in the Gazebo environment:

ros2 launch ur main.launch.py

You should see the virtual space with two robots (mobile base and arms) facing each other and stopped in position (0,0,0). If the robots do not spawn correctly, a solution can be to delete the build folder and rebuild the whole workspace from scratch.

Testing the application

In order to try the application you can send a ros message to the topic corresponding to a robot and see if it responds correctly in the gazebo environment. To do so, open a new tab of the terminal running the container with ros2 (right click > new tab) and use the new one to read/write on the topics corresponding to the robot movements.
The command can be something similar to:

# moving the base
ros2 topic pub /right_summit/cmd_vel geometry_msgs/msg/Twist "{linear: {x: 0.0, y: 0.5, z: 0.0}, angular: {x: 0.0, y: 0.0, z: 0.3}}" -1

ros2 topic pub /right_summit/cmd_vel geometry_msgs/msg/Twist "{linear: {x: 0.0, y: 0.0, z: 0.0}, angular: {x: 0.0, y: 0.0, z: -0.3}}"

ros2 topic pub /right_summit/cmd_vel geometry_msgs/msg/Twist "{linear: {x: -0.1, y: 0.0, z: 0.0}, angular: {x: 0.0, y: 0.0, z: 0.0}}"

ros2 topic pub /left_summit/cmd_vel geometry_msgs/msg/Twist "{linear: {x: 0.0, y: 0.0, z: 0.0}, angular: {x: 0.0, y: 0.0, z: 0.0}}"

ros2 topic pub /left_summit/cmd_vel geometry_msgs/msg/Twist "{linear: {x: 0.0, y: 0.0, z: 0.0}, angular: {x: 0.0, y: 0.0, z: 0.3}}"

or

# moving the arm
ros2 topic pub /left/ur_left_joint_group_vel_controller/commands std_msgs/msg/Float64MultiArray "{layout: {dim: [], data_offset: 0}, data: [0.02, 0.01, 0.03, 0,0,0.1]}"

ros2 topic pub /right/ur_right_joint_group_vel_controller/commands std_msgs/msg/Float64MultiArray "{layout: {dim: [], data_offset: 0}, data: [0.02, 0.01, 0.03, 0,0,0.1]}"

Data: [Rotazione della base, Inclinazione In Avanti (II giunto), Inclinazione in Avanti II (III Giunto), Rotazione X Pinza (IV Giunto), Rotazione Z Pinza (V Giunto), Rotazione Y Pinza (VI Giunto)]

Remember to use the "".

Some commands to try out:

ros2 topic pub /right/ur_right_joint_group_vel_controller/commands std_msgs/msg/Float64MultiArray "{layout: {dim: [], data_offset: 0}, data: [-0.01, -0.01, 0.0, 0,0,0]}"


ros2 topic pub /right/ur_right_joint_group_vel_controller/commands std_msgs/msg/Float64MultiArray "{layout: {dim: [], data_offset: 0}, data: [0.0, -0.05, 0.1, 0,0,0]}"

ros2 topic pub /right/ur_right_joint_group_vel_controller/commands std_msgs/msg/Float64MultiArray "{layout: {dim: [], data_offset: 0}, data: [0,0,0,0,0,0]}"



ros2 topic pub /left/ur_left_joint_group_vel_controller/commands std_msgs/msg/Float64MultiArray "{layout: {dim: [], data_offset: 0}, data: [0.01, 0.01, 0.05, 0,0.1,0]}"

ros2 topic pub /left_summit/cmd_vel geometry_msgs/msg/Twist "{linear: {x: 0.1, y: 0.0, z: 0.0}, angular: {x: 0.0, y: 0.0, z: 0.2}}"



ros2 topic pub /left/ur_left_joint_group_vel_controller/commands std_msgs/msg/Float64MultiArray "{layout: {dim: [], data_offset: 0}, data: [0,0,0,0,0,0]}"

ros2 topic pub /left_summit/cmd_vel geometry_msgs/msg/Twist "{linear: {x: 0.0, y: 0.0, z: 0.0}, angular: {x: 0.0, y: 0.0, z: 0.0}}"

git clone -b humble https://github.com/moveit/moveit_task_constructor.git
git clone https://github.com/ros_planning/geometric_shapes.git
git clone https://github.com/moveit/moveit_visual_tools.git
git clone -b humble https://github.com/moveit/moveit2_tutorials.git
git clone https://github.com/IntelRealSense/realsense-ros.git
git clone https://github.com/ros_controls/realtime_tools.git
git clone -b humble https://github.com/ros2/ros2_control.git
git clone https://github.com/ros2/ros2_control_cmake.git
git clone https://github.com/ros2/ros2_controllers.git
git clone https://github.com/ros2/rosparam_shortcuts.git