@Humpelstilzchen thank you for your help! It works and your suggestions helped a lot!
Here are some of the key steps that may help others:
- in the robot model need to use <plugin name="gazebo_ros_control" filename="libgazebo_ros_control.so">
- in the robot model need SimpleTransmission reference
- in the robot model inertia values exported from CAD do not always work
- orientation of the robot is not always exported correctly from CAD (X axis forward)
- need to setup diff_drive_controller.yaml parameters (these worked for me: http://wiki.ros.org/diff_drive_controller)
- need to run the controller_spawner node: <node name="controller_spawner" pkg="controller_manager" type="spawner" output="screen" ns="/robot1" args="joint_state_controller diff_drive_controller"/>
- I had to be very specific with the name space