Husky Manipulation

The purpose of this package is to make integration of manipulators much simpler. Currently this package only includes UR5 integrations, but supported manipulators will be expanded over time.

This doc will cover the setup for a single UR husky, but the process is identical for dual arm husky or any other arm, just with slightly different package names.

Cloning

To clone this repository and all necessary dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/husky/husky_manipulation.git --recursive

Workspace Dependencies

Description and driver packages for most arms will need to be built from source. It is relatively simple to use catkin_make to build the packages, however it is important that only the supported branches are used. Therefore, it is higly recommended to use wstool to setup the workspace src packages from the specified branches in the repositories specified in the .rosinstall files.

Assuming you have setup a workspace already and cloned the husky_manipulation package, initialize wstool.

# Go to Workspace
cd ~/catkin_ws
# Initialize wstool
wstool init src 

Follow the steps below to setup the source packages of the arm on the Husky.

Univeral Robots

# Go to Workspace
cd ~/catkin_ws
# Add UR Repository
wstool merge src/husky_manipulation/ur.rosinstall -t src
# Add Robotiq Repository If Gripper is Required
wstool merge src/husky_manipulation/robotiq.rosinstall -t src
# Update and Install Repository 
wstool update -t src

See Robotiq Gripper on UR to see how to configure the gripper on the arm.

Kinova

# Go to Workspace
cd ~/catkin_ws
# Add UR Repository
wstool merge src/husky_manipulation/kinova.rosinstall -t src
# Update and Install Repository 
wstool update -t src

Franka

Unlike other arms, Franka provides pre-built Noetic packages:

rosdep install franka_ros

URDF

In your URDF, make sure to include the husky_manipulation description that you want. For example, if you are using a single UR5, make sure to include the line below in your URDF:

<xacro:include filename="$(find husky_ur_description)/urdf/husky_ur5_description.urdf.xacro" />

You will then want to export your URDF as the URDF_EXTRA for your robot. This will "attach" it to the Husky. It's convenient to add all of these into a single shell script file that can be sourced later. Make sure to source the initial script as that will make sure to set any other necessary environment variables.

# UR Arms
source $(catkin_find husky_ur_description)/scripts/setup_husky_ur_envar -m [UR_MODEL] [-d] [-g]

The setup_husky_ur_envar script will export all the environment variables that correspond to the input parameters. You must pass it -m UR_MODEL, where UR_MODEL can be one of the following: ur3, ur3e, ur5, ur5e. If you pass -d it will add the dual arm version. If you pass -g a Robotiq gripper will be added.

Arm Positioning

Following above should make your Husky with an arm/arms attached to it. They will be attached in the default locations. If you need to change where the arm is mounted, export the necessary variables below.

HUSKY_LEFT_UR_XYZ
HUSKY_LEFT_UR_RPY
HUSKY_RIGHT_UR_XYZ
HUSKY_RIGHT_UR_RPY

Example:

export HUSKY_LEFT_UR_XYZ="-0.3 0.0 0.2"

Update Moveit Config

MoveIt is used to actually plan and move the arm. There are other ways to do this, but this is likely the easiest and most common.

Setup Package

The husky_manipulation package has moveit configs setup already. That config should work out-of-the-box for your robot, but you may get weird collisions or warnings about missing joints. If your robot is custom, you can use that moveit config as a starting point for yours.

Go into the src folder in your workspace and run the command below:

rosrun husky_ur_moveit_config customize_moveit.sh <new_package_name>

Choose the moveit_config that applies to your custom robot. If you have a Gen3, replace husky_ur_moveit_config with husky_gen3_moveit_config. If you have a Robotiq grip on a UR arm then use: husky_ur_robotiq_2f_85_moveit_config

That command will make a new moveit package in your src folder that should be ready for customization to your actual platform.

It is highly encouraged that you name this package: abc01_husky_moveit_config, where abc01 is the project code.
It is also important to move the generated package directory abc01_husky_moveit_config into the custom robot repository. That way you can keep it versioned.

Customize Package

To customize the moveit config, run the command below:

roslaunch <new_package_name> setup_assistant.launch

That command will bring up this window

Click Load Files. This will load the urdf into the configurator. Keep an eye on the terminal. You may see a couple of warnings if your config is very different from the default, but if you see a lot of warnings, something is likely not sourced properly. Cancel this and make sure everything is sourced properly and run this again. Check in the 3D view window on the right and make sure that is what your robot looks like. I have seen issues lately where the 3D window is empty. Not sure how to fix this.

Unless you want things to be very custom, there will likely be only 3 tabs you may need to change:

• Self-Collisions
• Robot Poses
• Passive Joints

Self-Collisions

Under this, drag the slider all the way to the right and click "Regenerate Default Collision Matrix". This may take a minute to run depending how complicated your model is. Once it is done, take a quick look through the collisions that have been automatically disabled. Take special notice of collisions that have been disabled because of "Collision by Default". This means that when the joints are at zeros, it is hitting something. Un-check any collisions that you do want to see if they happen.

Robot Poses

These are saved, named positions that can be recalled later. If you want to add any pre-defined poses or modify the stow position that is already there, you can click "Add Pose" or "Edit Selected" and drag the sliders to set a new position.

Passive Joints

Passive joints are joints that MoveIt doesn't need to worry about. These are things like wheel joints or PTUs. Under this menu, select anything that isn't an arm joint and make sure it is in the right list.

Save It

When you select Configuration Files, you may get a warning about files changing. That isn't a problem, just click OK.

The next step will show you the list of files that the wizard is responsible for. Make sure that nothing is selected except for:

• Config/
• Launch/
• config/Husky.srdf

If you modified more than the sections outlined above, you may need to edit other files, but this may have other consequences.

Once those files are selected, click Generate Package, then close down the wizard

Running Everything

There are 2 parts to working with this on the real robot:

Driver

Assuming the robot is all started up and the arm is setup, you should be able to run

roslaunch husky_ur_bringup husky_ur_bringup.launch

If that worked properly, you should see the arm positioned properly in RVIZ or you should see the UR joints being published on the /joint_states topic

MoveIt!

MoveIt! is the planning and execution interface for the arm. It runs separately from the driver. Run the MoveIt! configuration you created above with

roslaunch dummy_moveit_config husky_ur_moveit_planning_execution.launch

You should see no errors coming up in the terminal. You should now be able to add the Moveit MotionPlanning plugin in RVIZ and command the arm around!