Add crb15000 support package

[ggorjup]

This PR adds support for the ABB crb15000_5_95 and crb15000_10_152 robot.

[pucciland95]

Hi @ggorjup, may I ask you if you also tested the real robot with this pkg? Does it work?

Cheers

Niccolò

[ggorjup]

Hi @pucciland95, this was not yet tested on the real robot.
Currently it is only used in simulation - the real hardware won't be available for another couple of months.

Cheers,
Gal

[tgaspar]

I've just tested this with the real robots, both Gofa 5 (crb15000_5_95) and Gofa 10 (crb15000_10_152). I noted zero issues.

I would like to ask the maintainers of this repo to consider merging the PR

[Yadunund]

Thanks for confirming @tgaspar! There was a discussion earlier with @gavanderhoorn to move all the robot description (and moveit configs) out of this repo and into https://github.com/ros-industrial/abb. I believe the blocker was porting the existing descriptions there to ROS 2. That way we only store the hardware interface here which would make it easier to release on the ROS buildfarm.
What do you say about collaborating on the port? after that we can have this PR target that repo too.

[tgaspar]

This sounds like an excellent idea! Both in term of taking the descriptions out of here and collaborating. I have been using this specific package for the last couple of weeks and I think I can contribute a little.

Question: From what I see, the repo https://github.com/ros-industrial/abb does not contain <ros2_control> XMLs. Would those stay here?

[Yadunund]

Question: From what I see, the repo https://github.com/ros-industrial/abb does not contain <ros2_control> XMLs. Would those stay here?

Good question. I would argue for keeping those XMLs in the description package but I can also see the argument for it not being appropriate there since folks might want to use these descriptions or even control these robots without using ros2_controls..
My recommendation is keep since it's harmless even in the latter cases.

[FabPrez]

I've just tested this with the real robots, both Gofa 5 (crb15000_5_95) and Gofa 10 (crb15000_10_152). I noted zero issues.

I would like to ask the maintainers of this repo to consider merging the PR

Hi @tgaspar , I was just trying to use this with GOFA but I see in the reamde that it is expected to work only with RobotWare<7.0. Have you tested it with RobotWare 7.x?

[pucciland95]

Hi @FabPrez,

Gofa runs on the new ABB controller (that is Omnicore). You cannot install a RobotWare version lower than 7.x in Omnicore controllers.

Therefore I thinks all the tests done with Gofa have been performed with Roboware > 7.x

I let the other have a say since I was not the one doing such tests, however I am quite confident about this.

Niccolo

[tgaspar]

I confirm what @pucciland95 said - the tests were done with Roboware > 7.x

I've used the feature that was introduced with #56 to make it work. However, be advised that this approach introduces a new challenge, that is starting the driver when the robot is not in home (zero position) - #45. This comment is not exactly within the scope of this PR, but I think someone looking into this should be aware of.

[pucciland95]

Please check #25 @tgaspar. I should have fixed abb_librws for the Omnicore controllers

Niccolo

[tgaspar]

Please check #25 @tgaspar. I should have fixed abb_librws for the Omnicore controllers

Niccolo

Thanks for the effort. I will try to test it out with our robots as soon as I get the chance.

[Bephigo]

I've just tested this with the real robots, both Gofa 5 (crb15000_5_95) and Gofa 10 (crb15000_10_152). I noted zero issues.

I would like to ask the maintainers of this repo to consider merging the PR

Hello @tgaspar,
at the moment I am also trying to connect a real Gofa 5 with ROS but I did not make it so far.
I am not sure if I performed all steps correctly as the description in the readme is mainly for the connection to a virtual controller in RobotStudio.
Could you maybe briefly list the steps you took and tell what you adjusted to make it work? That would be great.

[tgaspar]

Could you maybe briefly list the steps you took and tell what you adjusted to make it work? That would be great.

Hi @Bephigo !

It's been a while since then but I will do my best to provide you with some pointers on how I've gotten this to work back then.

I had a computer directly connected to one of the Omnicore's ethernet interfaces. I forgot which one exactly, but I believe it was the one for more "internal" communication.

Then, I had to set up the network properties on both the computer as well as the Omnicore so that the devices could see (i.e. ping) each other.

Next, I uploaded the RAPID program and also define the EGM interface accordingly. I used the demo program that is either in this repo or in one of the other dependencies.

Finally, started the launchfile with ros2_control for the Gofa and tried executing some trajectories that I calculated.

Let me know if this was somewhat helpful

[Mujtaba0011]

I am working with an ABB GoFa (CRB15000) on an OmniCore controller (RobotWare 7.x). The controller uses RWS 2.0, but this repository seems to be built for RWS 1.0. Because of that I have not been able to connect or configure the robot using abb_ros2.

Is there any plan to add support for RWS2?
Has anyone already tried adapting the driver or using an alternative package such as abb_wrapper or a modified librws that supports RWS2?

Any advice or pointers would be very helpful.

Thanks.