Robotics StackExchange | Archived questions

Ros-industrial-package_creation

Hi guys

I have team of me and two friends working with ROS for about 8 months on our university. We created hardware configuration and driver for mobile manipulator with 6 dof-arm. We also created models and all basic packages included mapping moveit control and everything needed. Now after our results we have opportunity and we want to create ros-industrial package for schunk lwa4p arm with gripper and force torque sensor maybe for real industrial usage. For begining we are just using basic packages for controlling wsg50 and schunklwa4p but we already created our own model simulations and started programming driver for force_torque sensor.

I am interested in your opinion if it is real to start working on project like this. If it will be enough informations to use already created industrial packages as examples and industrial tutorials to created usefull industrial packages with all controllers /drivers/ simulations/ moveitsetup/descartes/object recognition and so on. I would like to know if it is possible to create package like this with only information given on internet. I am asking because I am doing schedule for this project and I need some profesional opinions, because when we were working on our first project with mobilemanipulator we found lot of problems with documentations of some packages and misunderstandings. I am also asking for opinion if it is ok to start project like this with our experience. I also have to say that we dont have a lot of experience with ros-industrial packages.

Also if you can help me and give more informations or hints how to manage project like this or if I can contact somebody who could help I would be really grateful .

Thank you for your opinions and I am sorry for my English

Asked by Chickenman on 2016-04-19 14:23:40 UTC

Comments

I'm afraid I can't really follow what you really want to do. Are you asking for the procedure how to contribute to ROS-Industrial, do you want to use existing ROS-I pkgs, or do you want to provide / create documentation for a particular application you developed (using ROS-I pkgs)?

Asked by gvdhoorn on 2016-04-20 02:54:10 UTC

We want to provide/create new industrial package with all documentation and setup for lwa4p manipulator. So it can be use for industrial aplication with all documentation and use as examples packages from fanuc or motoman.

Asked by Chickenman on 2016-04-20 04:03:04 UTC

Ok, that's clearer. Two questions:

new industrial package [..] for lwa4p manipulator

how do your pkgs relate to wiki/schunk_description?

[..] use as examples packages from fanuc or motoman.

So you'd like to see schunk supported like fanuc & motoman?

Asked by gvdhoorn on 2016-04-20 04:21:59 UTC

And it might be a good idea to send a message to the ROS-Industrial mailing list.

Asked by gvdhoorn on 2016-04-20 04:24:03 UTC

Thank you I will write mail and try to find more answers. Yeah I tried that packages and also setup moveit and I am already controlling real manipulator, I downloaded new stl models and created new urdf. I want to make more complex package using descarters, pick and place action and so on.

Asked by Chickenman on 2016-04-20 15:40:37 UTC

And in my opinion for beginner it is really hard to make real manipulator work with these packages or use these packages for real application and I think that their purpose is mainly for presentation and basic moves but for real industrial application it should be created something more complex.

Asked by Chickenman on 2016-04-20 15:46:53 UTC

Which packages are you now referring to in your last comment?

Asked by gvdhoorn on 2016-04-20 16:04:03 UTC

https://github.com/ipa320/schunk_modular_robotics and https://github.com/ipa320/schunk_robots but it is only my opinion and I probably dont have enough experience to judge but that is why I created this topic to discuss with more experienced people

Asked by Chickenman on 2016-04-20 16:26:25 UTC

If you feel that the packages are difficult to work with then you should definitely report that. Experience is no factor here: new users should be able to use them just as well. And complete examples are of course very important, so if you are considering contributing those that would be great.

Asked by gvdhoorn on 2016-04-21 04:13:47 UTC

Yeah I am consdering creating new package which will be remake of the current package and I will conntact the package creator and also write mail on ros-industrial mailing list and ask for some more support .Thank you for your ideas.

Asked by Chickenman on 2016-04-21 14:29:39 UTC

Just to clarify: I did not recommend remaking anything. I haven't extensively used the schunk pkgs, but afaik they look pretty usable as-is. If you feel something could be improved, I would strongly recommend to suggest improvements (and open a PR with them). Fragmentation is never a good thing.

Asked by gvdhoorn on 2016-04-21 14:47:03 UTC

Answers