Inverse Kinematics algorithm implementation

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Since you are talking about kinematics and not dynamics, I recommend you don't bother with a Gazebo simulation at all. It's a really nice tool, but I don't see the need for you.

You can make things move and visualise with RViz only - just feed your motion commands directly into the current state (i.e. joint position/velocity command = joint position/velocity state).

Have a look at the joint_state_publisher package for more details. We use this tool a lot in order to visualise our robot models.

Further than that I strongly recommend to take a look at the Kinematics and Dynamics Library (KDL). It contains various IK solvers and is also used in multiple kinematics packages/tools in ROS (e.g. pr2_kinematics). Also worth taking a look at is the IKFast module from OpenRAVE. The major difference between both is that the solvers in KDL are iterative, while the IKfast plugin uses an analytic solver - each naturally with its own strengths and weaknesses.

Good luck with your project!

Although the arm_navigation stack is a comprehensive package, it may go beyond the capabilities you are trying to test, and you may get lost learning the arm_navigation stack and gazebo (the simulator) and ros all at the same time.

If you are trying to develop your own algorithms you may want to try developing these first without the arm_navigation stack, but making use of ROS's distributed programming and message formats which are quite powerful.

If this sounds sensible, I'd suggest getting a model of your arm done in gazebo (noting ROS fuerte uses gazebo 1.0) using a urdf file. Create your own plugin to simulate your arm's control system. And then write a couple of nodes for your IKcontrol and for your DesiredPoseGoal. If you use basic messaging provided by ROS such as the sensor_msgs::JointState and perhaps define a couple of your own basic message groups for defining your Cartesian_Pose_Goals in a simple way then you will have the basics for testing a number of your own algorithms.

This way you can focus on your IK development for your specific configuration in a simple and uncluttered way. The arm_navigation_stacks are generalistic and take a bit to understand and the documentation is by no way a yellow brick road, and you can get easily sidetracked and not everything may be relevant for your case.

Though that being said, the arm_navigation_stack is very professional and worth a look to understand a lot of the concepts around what makes IK difficult.