An enhanced 3D simulation of franka emika's panda robot

Based on the work of Erdal Pakel (https://github.com/erdalpekel/panda_simulation)

Install

1. Docker
   1. Have a PC with a Nvidia GPU, docker and nvidia-docker2 installed
   2. Change $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa to your private ssh key for github
   3. Build docker image with install/build_all.sh
   4. Use commands in "install/commands_for_docker" to get the container running with X11 passthrough
2. Install ros melodic full desktop, than follow the steps from the Dockerfile in install/

First start-up

1. Clone this repository to your catkin workspace's src (in Docker /home/catkin_ws/src)
2. Make catkin workspace
3. source devel/setup.bash
4. Launch simulation with `roslaunch enhanced_sim camera_and_panda.launch

Run with the real robot

One needs the Panda robot by Franka Emika with a FCI license and a Intel RealSense D435 to run this demo. Drivers for the Intel camera must be installed on the PC the camera is connected to (see https://github.com/IntelRealSense/librealsense). FCI is assumed to be running on a dedicated second PC running a real-time capable Linux.

Now build the docker container under install/realRobot/ or install all the packages and their dependencies in your main PC's catkin_ws. If FCI runs on a second PC it needs panda_moveit_control_only installed locally and the ROS network must be established between the main PC and the FCI host (run the docker container with --net=host and --priviledged to interface the other PC and realsense camera via USB). Then the demo should be startable with the lauchscripts real_robot_explorer/setupExplorer.launch and real_robot_explorer/randomExplorer.launch. You may want to callibrate the camera <-> hand offset with real_robot_explorer/calibrate.launch beforehand. Also make sure that the main PC can ssh into the one running FCI such that the local controller from panda_moveit_control_only can be restarted remotely.

Related Packages

For the pure simulation of the robot the following packages were adapted; refer to the individual repositories to find where they were forked from:

• https://github.com/kingjin94/panda_simulation
• https://github.com/kingjin94/octomap_mapping
• https://github.com/kingjin94/panda_moveit_config
• https://github.com/kingjin94/mask_rcnn_ros
• https://github.com/kingjin94/franka_ros/tree/simulation
• https://github.com/kingjin94/realtime_urdf_filter
• https://github.com/kingjin94/filter_octomap

Additionaly, for use with the real Panda robot the following packages are needed

• https://github.com/kingjin94/real_robot_explorer (to be installed on the PC that rund the simulation)
• https://github.com/kingjin94/panda_moveit_control_only, based on panda_moveit_config by Franka Emika (to be installed on the PC interacting with Panda via FCI)
• https://github.com/IntelRealSense/realsense-ros
• https://github.com/tuw-robotics/tuw_marker_detection
• https://github.com/IFL-CAMP/easy_handeye

Available topics

• Outputs:

  • /joint_states --> q, q_dot, torque
  • /gazebo/link_states --> pose, twist of all links
  • /tf --> transforamtions along kinematic chain
  • /panda_[arm|hand]_controller/state --> actual, desired and error for q, qd, qdd, torque
  • /camera_bot/camera_bot/image_raw --> color image stream from camera bot
  • /camera_bot/depth_camera/[depth_image|points] --> depth image and point cloud
  • /panda/bumper/colliding --> overview if and where collisions occur
  • /panda/bumper/panda_* --> detailed collision state per linke (where, wrench, normal, counterpart)

• Inputs:

  • /panda_[arm|hand]_controller/follow_joint_trajectory --> Interface for a FollowJointTrajectory action client (example in src/gripper_close_open.py)
  • /move_group --> moveit interface

How to modify the simulation

• Panda dynamics: franka_ros/franka_description/robots/
  • panda_arm.xacro: Mass, Inertia properties of each link (sofar best guesses by Erdal Pakel in https://erdalpekel.de/?p=55)
  • panda.transmission.xacro: The joint transmissions and interfaces
• Change the camera in enhanced_sim
  • model/camera_bot.gazebo.xacro: Camera intrinsics, topic names
  • launch/camera_and_panda.launch: Spawn position for the camera (node spawn_cam_urdf, args -x/y/z)
  • Position and orientation via roslaunch arguments, e.g. roslaunch enhanced_sim camera_and_panda.launch x:=-0.5 y:=0 height:=2 Y:=0 P:=1.51
    • x,y,height: Position
    • Y: Yaw angle, orientation in ground plane in rad
    • P: Look down (+) or up (-), in rad

Open issues with workaround

• Gazebo or RViz may not open every time one tries roslaunch; retry roslaunch