pvandervelde / zinger_description

The ROS description for the zinger robot

zinger_description

Provides the geometric description of the zinger robot for use with RViz, Gazebo and other ROS 2 nodes.

Dependencies

The configurations in this repository assume you have the following prerequisites installed on the device on which you want to run this code. That device might be an Ubuntu machine or a physical robot using Raspberry Pi OS.

1. ROS humble with the robot_state_publisher, the joint_state_broadcaster and the ros_control packages.
2. A working ROS workspace.

Contents

This repository contains different folders for the different parts of the robot description.

• The config files that provide the configurations for the ROS control actuators and the test publishers
  • config/zinger.yaml defines the settings for the position controller, used for the steering angle of each wheel, and the velocity controller, used to drive the wheel forwards or backwards.
• The launch directory contains the launch files
  • launch/base.launch.py - Launches the robot_state_publisher which is always needed.
  • [launch/controller_manager.launch.py](launch/controller_manager.launch.py - Launches the ROS control controller_manager node. Should not be launched if the robot is being simulated in Gazebo.
  • launch/controllers.launch.py - Launches the appropriate ROS controllers for the robot.
  • launch/robot_description.launch.py - The launch file for the robot description. Will launch all the required nodes.
  • launch/test_joint_trajectory_controller.launch.py - Launches the test publisher for the steering angle changes.
  • launch/test_velocity_controller.launch.py - Launches the test publisher for the wheel rotation changes.
• The rviz directory contains the configuration file for RViz
• The URDF files that describe the robot for ROS, RViz and Gazebo.
  • urdf/base.xacro - The geometric description of the robot with the different link and joint elements.
  • urdf/gazebo.xacro - The Gazebo specific additions to the model, e.g. the materials for the different links and the ROS control integration.
  • urdf/macros.xacro - The XACRO macros for the robot. Contains the macros for the steering modules that consist of a wheel and a wheel bracket.
  • urdf/materials.xacro - Specifies the material properties for Gazebo and Rviz

Usage

In general the zinger_description package will not directly be launched. It is designed to be referenced by other SCUTTLE ROS packages.