Useful pointers for the final project - LCAS/RBT1001 GitHub Wiki

You can do so by editing the urdf definition of the robot we have been using during these workshops. For example this can be helpful if you want to add a gripper.

You can open and edit the robot definition in /mecharm_description/urdf/mecharm_270_m5.urdf.

If you modify it and relaunch the simulation you should see the effects of your changes.

You can find examples of integrating basic shapes such as box or cylinder, or a 3D mesh model, at: https://wiki.ros.org/urdf/XML/link

You can do this by changing the launch command of the robot simulation. By default the robot is spawned in the world mecharm_gazebo/worlds/pick_and_place_demo.world. You can for example spawn the robot in a home simulation (mecharm_gazebo/worlds/house.world):

ros2 launch mecharm_moveit_config gazebo2.launch.py world_file:=house.world

Once you have identified the world configuration file, for example the mecharm_gazebo/worlds/pick_and_place_demo.world, you can open it with your editor and change the objects present in it and other features. For example, you can change the pose, scale, colours, gravity etc. More details are available online, such as at: https://gazebosim.org/docs/latest/sdf_worlds/

A list of objects is available in the folder mecharm_gazebo/models, and you can download more models to integrate online (such as from https://app.gazebosim.org/dashboard)

You can also modify the scale and other properties of each object by modifying the object SDF file, for example you can modify properties of the brown table by editing the file /mecharm_gazebo/models/brown_table/model.sdf

You can do this by changing the launch command of the robot simulation. By default the robot is spawned at position <0,0,0> (X,Y,Z) and with orientation <0,0,0> (roll, pitch, yaw). You can for example set the robot at position <4,4,0> and orientation <0,0,2> with the following launch command:

ros2 launch mecharm_moveit_config gazebo2.launch.py x:=4 y:=4 yaw:=2

Otherwise, you can make the changes permanent by modifying the default values inside in https://github.com/LCAS/RBT1001/blob/f2395e980ac6e7ad392c3e0da3222438c9f147b7/src/mecharm_moveit_config/launch/gazebo2.launch.py#L136-L164

1. You initially need to have an active internet connection and launch the devcontainer. This will download the images required and all the installations.
2. Set the argument “remote.SSH.localServerDownload”: “always” in your VSCode settings.
3. Now, if you disconnect your computer from the internet, you can simply re-open the devcontainer and this will by re-using the downloaded server.