mo7ammed-saleh / robot_arm_control_in_ros

Control 5 DoF Robotic Arm using ROS platform with Gazebo, Rviz and Moveit Simulation environments.

Robot Arm Control Using ROS

This Repository will explain my first task in Robotics and AI department at SMART METHODS summer training.

Task Requirements:

• Control a robot arm actuator using Robot Operating System (ROS) platform with Rviz, Gazebo and Moveit Simulator.

Detailed Steps:

1. Install Ubuntu to work with ROS platform. I will use Ubuntu-18.04 (You can install Ubuntu with Windows in a virtual machine like Virtual box or Vmware).

2. Instal ROS Melodic using the commands bellow in the terminal (Melodic is the version of ROS that correspond with Ubuntu-18.04).

   • sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list'
   • sudo apt install curl
   • curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.asc | sudo apt-key add -
   • sudo apt-get update
   • sudo apt install ros-melodic-desktop-full
   • apt search ros-melodic
   • echo "source /opt/ros/melodic/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
   • source ~/.bashrc
   • sudo apt install python-rosdep python-rosinstall python-rosinstall-generator python-wstool build-essential
   • sudo apt install python-rosdep
   • sudo rosdep init
   • rosdep update

3. Install a Catkin Workspace which is a folder to combine all packages for ROS.

   • sudo apt-get install ros-melodic-catkin
   • mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src
   • cd ~/catkin_ws/
   • catkin_make
   • cd ~/catkin_ws/src
   • git clone https://github.com/smart-methods/arduino_robot_arm.git we will use the arm from SM to work with.
   • cd ~/catkin_ws
   • rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y
   • sudo apt-get install ros-melodic-moveit
   • sudo apt-get install ros-melodic-joint-state-publisher ros-melodic-joint-state-publisher-gui
   • sudo apt-get install ros-melodic-gazebo-ros-control joint-state-publisher
   • sudo apt-get install ros-melodic-ros-controllers ros-melodic-ros-control
   • open a file (bashrc) : sudo nano ~/.bashrc.
   • At the end of the file add the follwing linesource /home/mo7dsaleh/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash then press ctrl + o, (Note that mo7dsaleh is my ubuntu username).
   • source ~/.bashrc
   • To lunch the Rviz simulator with slider motors control (joint_state_publisher) use this command roslaunch robot_arm_pkg check_motors.launch
   • Rviz Simulator:

   

4. To control the robot arm physically if you need, connect the circuit diagram with your arm and the install Arduino IDE and ros_lib.

   • Circuit Wiring:

   

   • Install Arduino IDE software wget https://downloads.arduino.cc/arduino-1.8.12-linux64.tar.xz then tar -xvf arduino-1.8.12-linux64.tar.xz then cd arduino-1.8.12/ then sudo ./install.sh
   • Download rosserial to communicate with arduino using the following commands sudo apt-get install ros-melodic-rosserial-arduino then sudo apt-get install ros-melodic-rosserial
   • Download ros_lib on arduino software using the following commands cd Arduino/libraries then rm -rf ros_lib then rosrun rosserial_arduino make_libraries.py .
   • To upload the Arduino code, select the Arduino port to be used on Ubuntu system, then we need to change the permissions (it might be ttyACM) by ls -l /dev |grep ttyUSB then sudo chmod -R 777 /dev/ttyUSB0 then upload the code from Arduino IDE
   • Run Rviz roslaunch robot_arm_pkg check_motors.launch rosrun rosserial_python serial_node.py _port:=/dev/ttyUSB0 _baud:=115200

5. Control the Arm in Gazebo simulator (real simulation).

   • Change the permission cd catkin/src/arduino_robot_arm/robot_arm_pkg/scripts then sudo chmod +x joint_states_to_gazebo.py
   • Open new terminal to launch Rviz roslaunch robot_arm_pkg check_motors.launch
   • Open new terminal to launch Gazebo roslaunch robot_arm_pkg check_motors_gazebo.launch
   • Then run the python script to communicate with Gazebo rosrun robot_arm_pkg joint_states_to_gazebo.py
   • Rviz with Gazebo:

   

   • Different Angles:

   

6. Now, lets used Moveit in Rvis which will help for kinematics, motion planning, trajectory processing and controlling the robot

   • roslaunch moveit_pkg demo.launch
   • Moveit:

   

7. Task is Done 😍