How to Download a ROS Package from GitHub

Let’s say you see a ROS package on GitHub that you’d like to bring into your workspace.

For example, I would like to download the rviz_plugin_tutorials package available on this page on GitHub.

Option 1: Using the Command Line

ROS 1 Package

Open a new terminal window.

Type:

cd ~/catkin_ws/src

Clone the repository:

git clone -b <branch> <address>

For example, if you are looking to download the rviz_plugin_tutorials package available here, you would type the following command (this is a single command all on one line):

git clone -b noetic-devel https://github.com/ros-visualization/visualization_tutorials.git

You could also leave out the ROS branch specification, and type:

git clone <address>

For example:

git clone https://github.com/ros-visualization/visualization_tutorials.git

Then open up a new terminal window, and type:

cd ~/catkin_ws

catkin_make

That’s it!

ROS 2 Package

For a ROS 2 package, you would type the following (assuming the name of your ROS 2 workspace is dev_ws):

cd ~/dev_ws/src

git clone -b foxy-devel https://github.com/ros-visualization/visualization_tutorials.git

Open a new terminal window, and type:

cd ~/dev_ws

Install dependencies:

rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y

To build the packages, type:

colcon build --symlink-install

If that command doesn’t work, try the following command:

colcon build

Option 2: Downloading Manually from GitHub

First, you need to download the files to your computer.

Go to this page and download all the files. I like to download it to my Desktop.

Click the green “Code” button to download a ZIP file of the repository.

Open up the zip file, and go to the rviz_plugin_tutorials folder. The rviz_plugin_tutorials package is the package we need.

Right-click on that folder, and click “Extract”.

Move that folder to your catkin_ws/src folder. I just dragged the folder to my catkin_ws/src folder on my computer, just as I would drag and drop any folder on a Mac or Windows computer.

Open up a terminal window, and type:

cd ~/catkin_ws/src

dir

You should see the rviz_plugin_tutorials package (i.e. a folder) in there.

Now you need to run this command so that your ROS environment knows about the rviz_plugin_tutorials package we just added. Open a new terminal window, and type:

cd ~/catkin_ws/

catkin_make

Open a new terminal window, and type:

rospack find rviz_plugin_tutorials

You should see the path of your new ROS package.

To see if our package depends on other packages, type these commands. Ignore any error messages you see in the terminal:

rosdep update

rosdep check rviz_plugin_tutorials

You should see a message that says “All system dependencies have been satisfied.”

How to Set Up and Control a Robotic Arm Using MoveIt and ROS

In this tutorial, I will show you how to set up and control a robotic arm using MoveIt and ROS. MoveIt is a motion planning software for robotic arms. Here is the output:

Real-World Applications

This project has a number of real-world applications:

Indoor and Outdoor Delivery Robots
Room Service Robots
Robot Vacuums
Order Fulfillment
Manufacturing
Factories

Our robot will exist in a world that contains a post office and three houses. The use case for this simulated robot would be picking up packages at a post office and delivering them to houses in a neighborhood.

Let’s get started!

Prerequisites

You have completed this tutorial where you learned how to create a simulated mobile manipulator.
You have completed this tutorial where you set up and configured the ROS Navigation Stack for your robot.

All the code you need is located at this link.

Install MoveIt

Let’s install MoveIt.

Open a new terminal window, and type the following commands:

sudo apt install ros-noetic-moveit

sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-moveit-setup-assistant

sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-moveit-simple-controller-manager

sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-moveit-fake-controller-manager

Configure the Robotic Arm

Let’s use the MoveIt Setup Assistant to configure our robotic arm.

Open a new terminal window, and type the following command.

roslaunch moveit_setup_assistant setup_assistant.launch

Click Create New MoveIt Configuration Package.

Load the mobile_manipulator.urdf file. Click Load Files.

If the URDF file loads properly, you will see a success message.

Click the Self-Collisions tab on the left-hand side.

Click Generate Collision Matrix.

If you wish, you can manually enable pairs of links for which you want MoveIt to check for collisions during the motion planning process. I will leave the defaults as-is.

Let’s skip the Virtual Joints tab. We won’t have any virtual joints for our mobile manipulator.

Click the Planning Groups tab.

Click Add Group.

Let’s call the group arm.

In the Kinematic Solver dropdown box, select the kdl_kinematics_plugin/KDLKinematicsPlugin.

Keep the resolution and timeout as the default values.

Choose RRTstar as the Group Default Planner.

Add the five joints of the robotic arm.

Click the Robot Poses tab.

Click Add Pose.

Let’s add a pose for the home position.

Pose Name: home_position

arm_base_joint: 0.0
shoulder_joint: 0.0
bottom_wrist_joint: 0.0
elbow_joint: 0.0
top_wrist_joint: 0.0

Click Save.

Click Add Pose.

Pose Name: goal_position

arm_base_joint: 1.5794
shoulder_joint: -0.9893
bottom_wrist_joint: -0.9893
elbow_joint: 0.0
top_wrist_joint: -0.6769

Click Save.

We don’t have a gripper or suction cup on the end of our robotic arm, so we can skip the End Effectors tab.

Click the Passive Joints tab. Here is what my setup assistant looks like. I have added all the wheel joints to the passive joints list.

Click the ROS Control tab.

Click the Auto Add FollowJointsTrajectory Controllers For Each Planning Group button.

Click the Author Information tab.

Add your name and email address.

Click the Configuration Files tab.

Select the destination where you want to save the configuration files. I will choose my ~catkin_ws/src/ folder. The name of the folder will be mobile_manipulator_moveit_config.

Click Generate Package.

Click Exit Setup Assistant.

Control the Robotic Arm Manually

Let’s install a couple more packages before we get started. Open a terminal window, and type the following commands.

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt install ros-noetic-moveit-resources-prbt-moveit-config

sudo apt install ros-noetic-pilz-industrial-motion-planner

Open your mobile_manipulator_moveit_controller_manager.launch.xml file.

cd ~/catkin_ws/src/mobile_manipulator_moveit_config/launch

gedit mobile_manipulator_moveit_controller_manager.launch.xml

Add this line in the line below the opening <launch> tag:

<arg name="execution_type" default="unused" />

Save the file, and close it.

Now, launch the robotic arm in Gazebo by opening a new terminal window, and typing:

roslaunch mobile_manipulator mobile_manipulator_gazebo.launch

Open a new terminal window, and launch MoveIt.

Launch the move_group.launch file by opening a terminal window, and typing:

roslaunch mobile_manipulator_moveit_config move_group.launch

Open another terminal window, and launch RViz. This command below is a single command.

roslaunch mobile_manipulator mobile_manipulator_move_base.launch

Click Add in the bottom left, and add the Motion Planning plugin under moveit_ros_visualization. If you don’t have the Add button, be sure to go to Panels -> Display on the upper menu to make sure it appears.

Click the Planning tab.

For Goal State, choose goal_position.

Click Plan & Execute.

The robotic arm will move to the goal position.

Next Steps

Now you know how to move the robotic arm manually using MoveIt’s RViz interface. If you want to control the robotic arm using code, you can follow this tutorial for C++ or this tutorial for Python.

That’s it! Keep building!

How to Send a Simulated Robot to Goal Locations Using ROS

In this tutorial, I will show you how to send a simulated robot (in Gazebo) to goal locations using ROS.

Real-World Applications

This project has a number of real-world applications:

Indoor and Outdoor Delivery Robots
Room Service Robots
Robot Vacuums
Order Fulfillment
Manufacturing
Factories

Let’s get started!

Prerequisites

You have completed this tutorial where you learned how to create a simulated mobile manipulator.
You have completed this tutorial where you set up and configured the ROS Navigation Stack for your robot.
All the code you need is located at this link.

Getting Started

In our Gazebo environment, we have four main goal locations we would like to send our robot.

1 – House 1
2 – House 2
3 – House 3
4 – Post Office

Open a new terminal window, and launch the robot in Gazebo.

roslaunch mobile_manipulator mobile_manipulator_gazebo.launch

Then in another terminal window, type:

roslaunch mobile_manipulator mobile_manipulator_move_base.launch

Make a note of the X and Y coordinates of each desired goal location. I use the RViz Point Publish button to accomplish this. When you click that button, you can see the coordinate values by typing the following command in a terminal:

ros topic echo /clicked_point

I want to have an X, Y coordinate for the following four goal locations in the world.

1 = House 1 (-15.04, -7.42, 0.0)

2 = House 2 (-14.25, 20.02, 0.0)

3 = House 3 (7.35, 20.17, 0.0)

4 = Post Office (12.12, -8.41, 0.0)

You notice how I numbered the goal locations above. That was intentional. I want to be able to type a number into a terminal window and have the robot navigate to that location.

For example, if I type 4, the robot will move to the post office. If I type 2, the robot will go to house 2.

Write the Code

Now let’s write some C++.

Open a terminal window.

roscd mobile_manipulator/src

gedit send_goals.cpp

Add this code.

Save the file, and close it.

Compile the Code

Now open a new terminal window, and type the following command:

roscd mobile_manipulator

gedit CMakeLists.txt

Go to the bottom of the file.

Add the following lines.

INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES(/usr/local/lib)
LINK_DIRECTORIES(/usr/local/lib)
 
add_executable(send_goals src/send_goals.cpp)
target_link_libraries(send_goals ${catkin_LIBRARIES})

cd ~/catkin_ws/

Compile the package.

catkin_make --only-pkg-with-deps mobile_manipulator

Run the Code

Open a new terminal window, and launch the robot in Gazebo.

roslaunch mobile_manipulator mobile_manipulator_gazebo.launch

Then in another terminal window, type:

roslaunch mobile_manipulator mobile_manipulator_move_base.launch

Open another terminal to launch the send_goals node.

rosrun mobile_manipulator send_goals

Follow the prompt to send your goal to the ROS Navigation Stack.

To see the node graph (which shows what ROS nodes are running to make all this magic happen), type:

rqt_graph

If the robot is having trouble reaching the goal, you can adjust the xy_goal_tolerance (in meters) and the yaw_goal_tolerance (in radians) parameters inside the base_local_planner_params.yaml file, which is located in my ~/catkin_ws/src/mobile_manipulator/param folder.

That’s it. Keep building!