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Strange behaviour from joint_trajectory_action to ABB robot

asked 2016-02-12 00:01:40 -0500

cobhc999 gravatar image

updated 2016-02-12 00:07:42 -0500

Hello friends,

I have a very strange problem with my ABB IRB 140. When I use RViz to plan a motion, everything works as expected. So i tried to write a node, which uses moveit to control my IRB140. Everything works as expected through /joint_path_command (see picture). Problem is: On the RobotStudio side I get very strange joint values. I.e.: If I send [0.0 , 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4] from my script "simpleplanner", my robot recieves [0.0 , 0.1, 0.1, 0.1, 0.1]. Somehow it clones the value from a joint to another joint/joints. This also happens when I directly write into the /joint_trajectory_action node, thus skipping moveit. Since the values are correct up to /joint_path_command, I assume the problem lays in /motion_download_interface. Which is strange cause, everything works fine sending motions via Rviz.

Thanks in advance! Regards - Timo

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answered 2016-02-12 01:35:59 -0500

gvdhoorn gravatar image

updated 2016-02-12 01:39:33 -0500

Your screenshot doesn't show the situation you describe in your question text, but what you're seeing is most likely the effect of the joint2-joint3 joint coupling that some ABB robots have.

That coupling influences the joint position values reported by the RAPID runtime to the ROS driver (ie: the values don't actually correspond to the real-world angle of the joints), so the ROS driver has to compensate for that, if configured to do so. All launch files distributed through the ros-industrial/abb and ros-industrial/abb_experimental repositories set the J23_coupled launch file argument (here, for the IRB 120 fi), which gets passed on to the abb_driver nodes (here). Finally, that value is used to calculate the corrected joint angles for joint_3 (here). Both JointStates (here) and JointTrajectoryPoints (here) undergo this compensation.

So in the case of your screenshot: joint_3 (compensated) would be joint_2 + joint_3, or 0.092507.. + 0.328967.. ~= 0.421474...

Now whether this is correct for your IRB 140 depends on whether that robot has the same joint2-joint3 coupling. I've never worked with one, so I can't tell you. You'll have to (en|dis)able the J23_coupled parameter and see what the effect is on your simulated robot. Easiest is just to start the robot_state_visualize_...launch file and jog the robot in RobotStudio: RViz should show the exact same robot poses. You will very quickly recognise an incorrect setting for J23_coupled.

The fact that MoveIt trajectory execution already ''works just fine' seems to suggest that the value you currently use is correct though. But it's always good to make sure.


PS: if you are interested, you could install the packet-simplemessage Wireshark dissector, which will show you the JointTrajectoryPoint messages actually send by abb_driver (and received by your controller/simulator). Look for JOINT_TRAJ_PT and JOINT_POSITION messages. They should show the non-compensated angles.

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Thank you very much! If I had asked earlier, this would have saved me a whole workday of debugging! If have seen the J23_coupled parameter before. Since the IRB2400 (which packets I modified for my IRB140) has similiar kinematics like the IRB140, I thought I could leave this parameter as it is.

cobhc999 gravatar image cobhc999  ( 2016-02-12 01:50:30 -0500 )edit

If both state visalisation and trajectory execution are ok with the value you have right now, then yes, you can leave it as it is.

gvdhoorn gravatar image gvdhoorn  ( 2016-02-12 02:05:07 -0500 )edit

Would you be interested to contribute your IRB 140 package(s) back to the abb_experimental repository? That would be very much appreciated. There might be some (minor) work involved to make sure things conform to ROS-I conventions, but that is something we can iterate on.

gvdhoorn gravatar image gvdhoorn  ( 2016-02-12 02:06:12 -0500 )edit

Of course! I would be glad to return something to the community. But since I'm an amateur in ROS you would totally have to check the packages. Maybe its usable. How should I provide the packages?

cobhc999 gravatar image cobhc999  ( 2016-02-12 05:48:55 -0500 )edit

The easiest is probably to make a fork of the abb_experimental repository on github, add your new abb_irb140_support (and any other related pkgs) to it (in a new branch) and then submit a PR back to abb_experimental. The maintainers will review your PR and merge it if it is ok.

gvdhoorn gravatar image gvdhoorn  ( 2016-02-12 06:06:43 -0500 )edit

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Asked: 2016-02-12 00:01:40 -0500

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Last updated: Feb 12 '16