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what might cause the shoulder_lift_joint not to go all the way up?

asked 2011-06-18 20:58:54 -0600

liuhuanjim013 gravatar image

updated 2014-11-22 17:05:23 -0600

ngrennan gravatar image

Hi,

I'm using JointTrajectoryAction to control the arm to follow a trajectory that can be executed well by openrave's controller. Most of the time, it works. But I found one case where the trajectory can be executed by openrave's controller but not JointTrajectoryActionController.

Here's a video showing the problem:

http://people.csail.mit.edu/liuhuan/p...

The video first shows the ideal motion of the robot following a trajectory. Then it shows the result of the trajectory being executed on the robot via JointTrajectoryAction, where the shoulder_lift_joint does not reach its goal.

Below is a script showing the problematic motion:

http://people.csail.mit.edu/liuhuan/p...

The problematic trajectory file:

http://people.csail.mit.edu/liuhuan/p...

After the motion completes, the result of /l_arm_controller/state is:

---
header: 
  seq: 422241
  stamp: 
    secs: 4226
    nsecs: 27000000
  frame_id: ''
joint_names: ['l_shoulder_pan_joint', 'l_shoulder_lift_joint', 'l_upper_arm_roll_joint', 'l_elbow_flex_joint', 'l_forearm_roll_joint', 'l_wrist_flex_joint', 'l_wrist_roll_joint']
desired: 
  positions: [-0.45063500000000001, -0.453629, 2.9684300000000001, -1.73685, 2.6124100000000001, -1.3944000000000001, 0.28170399999999973]
  velocities: [0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0]
  accelerations: [0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0]
  time_from_start: 
    secs: 0
    nsecs: 0
actual: 
  positions: [-0.4506183813835607, -0.3535970257554899, 2.9684618999661581, -1.7368655244971523, 2.6124013457752877, -1.3943968838867686, 0.28170416664188558]
  velocities: [-0.0028369264248514835, 0.0021461982864228284, 0.0030925275806860746, 0.0022533051752136402, -0.00019810275617700331, -0.0011666050558722749, 0.00023889403521337726]
  accelerations: []
  time_from_start: 
    secs: 0
    nsecs: 0
error: 
  positions: [1.6618616439312284e-05, 0.1000319742445101, 3.1899966157933335e-05, -1.5524497152252792e-05, -8.6542247124121729e-06, 3.1161132314494466e-06, 1.6664188584591955e-07]
  velocities: [-0.0028369264248514835, 0.0021461982864228284, 0.0030925275806860746, 0.0022533051752136402, -0.00019810275617700331, -0.0011666050558722749, 0.00023889403521337726]
  accelerations: []
  time_from_start: 
    secs: 0
    nsecs: 0
---

The trajectory does not contain a point that asks the shoulder_lift_joint to go beyond its soft limit defined in the urdf file which is ~ [-.52, 1.39], but the shoulder_lift_joint still stops at -.35 when it's commended to go to -.45.

This happens on both the simulated robot in Gazebo and the real robot.

I tried slowing down the trajectory as well (x10 times), but the shoulder_lift_joint still didn't go to -.45.

Below is the output of /joint_states when the motion completes. The effort for /l_shoulder_lift_joint is -0.0023171897976062093.

The arm also floats in a neutral position when it's not powered.

---
header: 
  seq: 10891
  stamp: 
    secs: 117
    nsecs: 22000000
  frame_id: ''
name: ['fl_caster_rotation_joint', 'fl_caster_l_wheel_joint', 'fl_caster_r_wheel_joint', 'fr_caster_rotation_joint', 'fr_caster_l_wheel_joint', 'fr_caster_r_wheel_joint', 'bl_caster_rotation_joint', 'bl_caster_l_wheel_joint', 'bl_caster_r_wheel_joint', 'br_caster_rotation_joint', 'br_caster_l_wheel_joint', 'br_caster_r_wheel_joint', 'torso_lift_joint', 'head_pan_joint', 'head_tilt_joint', 'laser_tilt_mount_joint', 'r_upper_arm_roll_joint', 'r_shoulder_pan_joint', 'r_shoulder_lift_joint', 'r_forearm_roll_joint', 'r_elbow_flex_joint', 'r_wrist_flex_joint', 'r_wrist_roll_joint', 'r_gripper_joint', 'r_gripper_l_finger_joint', 'r_gripper_r_finger_joint', 'r_gripper_r_finger_tip_joint', 'r_gripper_l_finger_tip_joint', 'l_upper_arm_roll_joint', 'l_shoulder_pan_joint', 'l_shoulder_lift_joint', 'l_forearm_roll_joint', 'l_elbow_flex_joint', 'l_wrist_flex_joint', 'l_wrist_roll_joint', 'l_gripper_joint', 'l_gripper_l_finger_joint', 'l_gripper_r_finger_joint', 'l_gripper_r_finger_tip_joint', 'l_gripper_l_finger_tip_joint']
position: [-1.8911007431121618e-05, 0.017315724103188046, 0.018450151123038161, -4.2352233703191189e-05, 0.015518171855746665, 0.01503525977753295, 9.623874763775575e-06, 0.013270571780459761, 0.0121751864435371, -2.3722479977728028e-05, 0.0079390893900841419, 0.0078856620877401085, 0.067548587109680494, -0.0030113676917249421, 0.36397195459308573, -0.16406783417664261, -9.0504940351010532e-06, -1.5707688803932429, 1.013406538774575e-05, 6.0780678108329766e-06, -0.14997776679068586, -0.10000287454784118, 4.2789370331419718e-06, 0.0015572890254982397, 0.010626329318313282, 0.010626329318313282, 0.010626329318313282, 0.010626329318313282, 2.9684229023394977, -0.45064403278428422, -0.35359079109074809, 2.612415939749134, -1.7368340148522607, -1.3944002154008768, 0.2817094449786417, 0 ...
(more)
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2 Answers

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2

answered 2011-06-28 07:46:07 -0600

hsu gravatar image

updated 2011-06-28 07:47:50 -0600

take shoulder lift urdf for example, you can see 'shoulder_lift_joint' limits are:

  <!-- Limits updated from Function's CAD values as of 2009_02_24 (link_data.xls) -->
  <limit lower="-0.5236" upper="1.3963"
         effort="30" velocity="${VELOCITY_LIMIT_SCALE*3.47}" /> <!-- alpha tested velocity and effort limits -->

with safety controller

  <safety_controller k_position="100" k_velocity="10"
                     soft_lower_limit="${-0.5236+0.17}" soft_upper_limit="${1.3963-0.10}" />

so safety controllers will start imposing limits before the hardware limits [-0.5236, 1.3963]. In this case, a counter force is applied in the range of [-0.3536, 1.2963] by the safety controller.

John

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Thanks John! I thought the <limit> tag was already the soft limit. Problem solved! The dae file generated by openrave does not take into account the <safety_controller> tag.
liuhuanjim013 gravatar image liuhuanjim013  ( 2011-06-28 07:57:28 -0600 )edit
Hi John, one more question: how do I get the soft limits? I couldn't find a ros parameter for it. Is there any way other than using the urdf API to get the soft limits?
liuhuanjim013 gravatar image liuhuanjim013  ( 2011-06-28 13:07:27 -0600 )edit
3

answered 2011-06-19 10:28:25 -0600

tfoote gravatar image

Are you sending commands inside the joint safety limits?

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good call tully! i'll slow down the trajectory and try it out.
liuhuanjim013 gravatar image liuhuanjim013  ( 2011-06-19 10:49:40 -0600 )edit
Hi Tully, I just turned down the speed of the trajectory by 10 times, but the shoulder_lift_joint still didn't go all the way up.. And I saw no warning or error message in rosout. Any other way I can confirm that my trajectory doesn't violate any limit?
liuhuanjim013 gravatar image liuhuanjim013  ( 2011-06-19 16:41:56 -0600 )edit
Hi Tully, you are right! The soft limit is indeed violated. See my comment to John's answer above. Thanks for your help!
liuhuanjim013 gravatar image liuhuanjim013  ( 2011-06-28 08:25:05 -0600 )edit

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Asked: 2011-06-18 20:58:54 -0600

Seen: 425 times

Last updated: Jun 28 '11