robotnik_description

This package includes the description for Robotnik robots.

Available robots and models are:

• RB-1
• RB-Ficus
• RB-Kairos / RB-Kairos+
• RB-Robout / RB-Robout+
• RB-Summit
• RB-Summit-Steel
• RB-Theron / RB-Theron+
• RB-Vogui / RB-Vogui+
• RB-Vogui-XL
• RB-Watcher

Quick Usage

ros2 launch robotnik_description robot_description.launch.py robot:=ROBOT [robot_model:=ROBOT_MODEL]

Launches the description of a ROBOT, specifically ROBOT_MODEL.

Contributing

All files must be formatted using Prettier with the configuration found in .github/.prettierrc.json.

Install npm, prettier and prettier/plugin-xml:

sudo apt install npm
sudo npm install -g prettier @prettier/plugin-xml

To format the files, run the following command inside the package folder:

prettier --plugin=$(npm root -g)/@prettier/plugin-xml/src/plugin.js --config .github/.prettierrc.json --write "urdf/**/*.{xml,xacro,urdf}"

Structure

The description of a robot is divided into three parts:

• robot: The whole robot, including all its parts and customizations.
• base: The basic unit for each robot, composed of chassis + wheels.
• body: The chassis of each robot.

This repository contains three high-level folders:

• robots: Contains the URDF for complete robots, including the mobile base, arms, sensors, etc.
• urdf: Contains the URDF files of components that compose a robot.
• meshes: Contains the 3D meshes for each individual component of the robots.

Robots

The robots folder contains a folder for each robot type:

• rb1
• rbfiqus
• rbkairos
• rbrobout
• rbsummit
• rbsummit_steel
• rbtheron
• rbvogui
• rbvogui_xl
• rbwatcher

Inside each robot type folder, there may exist several versions.

URDF

The urdf folder contains a folder for each main component:

• arms: Contains the different types of robot arms.
• bases: Body of robots, including wheels, structures, and arms.
• bodies: Includes chassis.
• structures: Other structures included in a robot (e.g., columns, protection, elevator, support, etc.).
• wheels: Contains the different types of wheels.

Launch

The launch files in this package run the robot_state_publisher node, publishing the topic robot_description.

Nodes

• robot_state_publisher (robot_state_publisher/robot_state_publisher)

  Standard robot_state_publisher node from robot_state_publisher.

Topics

Input Topics

• joint_states (sensor_msgs/msg/JointState)

  The joint state updates to the robot poses.

Output Topics

• ~/robot_description (std_msgs/msg/String)

  The description of the robot URDF as a string.

• tf (std_msgs/msg/String)

  The transforms corresponding to the movable joints of the robot.

• tf_static (std_msgs/msg/String)

  The transforms corresponding to the static joints of the robot.

Arguments

• namespace (string, default: robot)

  Adds a namespace to this launch.

• robot (string, default: ``)

  Specifies which robot to select from the robots folder.

• robot_model (string, default: same as robot)

  Specifies the model to use from the robots folder.

• robot_xacro_path (string, default: none)

  Absolute path to specify a custom URDF/Xacro robot description, discarding the robot and robot_model arguments.

• gazebo_ignition (boolean, default: False)

  Boolean to set if simulating in Gazebo Ignition.

Usage

ros2 launch robotnik_description robot_description.launch.py robot:=rbkairos

Launches the description for the RB-Kairos mobile base.

ros2 launch robotnik_description robot_description.launch.py robot:=rbkairos robot_model:=rbkairos_plus

Launches the description for the RB-Kairos with a UR arm.

ros2 launch robotnik_description robot_description.launch.py robot:=rbkairos robot_model:=rbkairos_plus namespace:=robot_b

Launches the description for the RB-Kairos with a UR arm, under the namespace robot_b.