UR5 manipulator with drl_grasping 2.0.0

[lucarei]

Hi Andrej.

I am working on a pick and place application for pick up trash and clean beaches. I have a similar setup to yours: a manipulator (one of the family of Universal Robots) on top of a mobile base (Robotnik).

Then, I should use UR manipulators in this project but i red this on 2.0.0 changelog:

REMOVED: ur5_rg2 and kinova_j2s7s300 from supported robot models due to shift to ros2_control.

Is it possible to use again Universal Robot's arms or is forbidden for this version of drl_grasping? If it is possible, could you share with me some tips/hints to do it?

[AndrejOrsula]

Hello,

In 2.0.0, this repository supports robots that implement gz_ros2_control (renamed from ign_ros2_control). Therefore, it is not "forbidden" to use the current version of drl_grasping with any robot - it is just not implemented.

In versions 1.x.y, JointTrajectoryController plugin of Ignition was used - but that was before gz_ros2_control and stable API of ros2_control. The repository for UR5 robot with RG2 used in 1.x.y is still available under https://github.com/AndrejOrsula/ur5_rg2_ign, but I archived it as I do not have access to this robot anymore.

If you want to start from the ur5_rg2_ign repository, you are free to fork it and update it to use ign_ros2_control such that it matches https://github.com/AndrejOrsula/panda_ign_moveit2 or https://github.com/snt-spacer/lunalab_summit_xl_gen. More specifically, this PR (AndrejOrsula/panda_ign_moveit2#7) contains all the changes that would need to be made (but adjusted for the specific robot). It is a lot of changes, but you could use it as a template if you don't find any other workaround.

After that, the UR robot would just need to be added to the models. The model for this robot is already in 1.x.y as ur5_rg2.py (here), so you could just copy it and make minor modifications to match the other robots.

[lucarei]

Thank you!