mcqueen_description

McQueen Description ROS 2 Package

A ROS 2 package that defines the robot description (URDF/XACRO) and visualization settings for the McQueen robot.

Author

Halil İbrahim ŞENAYDIN
E-mail: halilsenaydin@gmail.com
GitHub: github.com/halilsenaydin

Dependencies

• ROS 2 (recommended Iron)

Package Overview

Defines the complete robot model for McQueen using URDF and Xacro. Enables seamless integration with ROS 2 visualization and introspection tools.

URDF/Xacro-Based Robot Model

• Full 3D URDF description with:
  • Base link, wheels, and sensors
  • Joint definitions
  • Inertial and visual properties

Visualization Support

• Easily visualizable in rviz2
• Includes material definitions and RViz configuration files
• Launchable with GUI sliders using joint_state_publisher_gui

ROS 2 Integration

• Publishes robot description to /robot_description using robot_state_publisher
• Compatible with joint_state_publisher and real/simulated feedback

ros2_control Ready

• Includes hardware interface tag for ros2_control integration
• Pairs with mcqueen_hw package for real-time control

Installation

Start by creating a new ROS 2 workspace if you don't already have one:

mkdir -p ~/workspace/src
cd ~/workspace/src

Use Git to download the mcqueen_description package from the repository:

git clone https://github.com/halilsenaydin/mcqueen

Install Dependencies

Before building the workspace, make sure all system and ROS 2 package dependencies are installed using rosdep:

# Navigate to the root of your ROS 2 workspace
cd ~/workspace

# Update rosdep database (recommended)
rosdep update

# Install all dependencies defined in package.xml files
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y

Build Workspace

Navigate to the root of your workspace and build the package using colcon:

cd ~/workspace
colcon build --symlink-install

After building, don’t forget to source the setup file before running any ROS 2 commands:

source install/setup.bash

Usage

Launches the URDF model along with the necessary nodes for robot visualization and joint publishing:

ros2 launch mcqueen_description mcqueen.launch.py

Launching RViz2

To visualize the robot with a predefined RViz2 configuration, run the following command:

rviz2 -d ~/workspace/src/mcqueen_teleop/config/mcqueen.rviz

Screenshots

Rviz2 Visualization