Elite Robots Gazebo Simulation

ROS 2 launch files and controller configuration for simulating Elite Robots manipulators in Gazebo.

Dependencies

This package uses:

• elite_robots_description
• elite_robots_moveit_config when launching MoveIt
• ros_gz_sim, ros_gz_bridge, and ign_ros2_control
• ros2_control, RViz, and Xacro

Install dependencies from the root of your ROS 2 workspace:

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

Build

colcon build --packages-select elite_robots_simulation_gz
source install/setup.bash

Run the simulation

Start Gazebo and the ROS 2 controllers:

ros2 launch elite_robots_simulation_gz elite_sim_control.launch.py cs_type:=cs66

Start Gazebo together with MoveIt:

ros2 launch elite_robots_simulation_gz elite_sim_moveit.launch.py cs_type:=cs66

The simulation publishes ROS /clock through ros_gz_bridge. To start MoveIt in a separate terminal after starting the control simulation:

ros2 launch elite_robots_moveit_config elite_moveit.launch.py \
  cs_type:=cs66 use_sim_time:=true use_fake_hardware:=true launch_servo:=false

Here use_fake_hardware:=true selects the unscaled trajectory controller in MoveIt’s configuration; this MoveIt launch does not start a hardware driver.

Do not run a real/fake hardware driver and Gazebo in the same ROS domain with the default node names. Duplicate /robot_state_publisher and /controller_manager services can make Gazebo read the real hardware URDF or make spawners configure the wrong controllers. Stop the other launch, or set export ROS_DOMAIN_ID=87 in both simulation and MoveIt terminals before launching. Source the same workspace’s install/setup.bash in both terminals.

For a server-only check without Gazebo GUI or RViz:

ros2 launch elite_robots_simulation_gz elite_sim_moveit.launch.py \
  cs_type:=cs66 launch_rviz:=false gz_args:="-s -r empty.sdf"

Supported cs_type values are cs63, cs66, cs612, cs616, cs618f, cs620, cs625, cs66a, cs68, cs520h, and ls65.

Useful launch arguments include:

• launch_rviz: launch RViz with the control-only simulation
• start_joint_controller: start the initial controller in the active state
• initial_joint_controller: select the controller to load
• controllers_file: override the controller configuration
• prefix: add a prefix to joint names for multi-robot setups

Use ros2 launch ... --show-args to list every available argument.

Send an example trajectory

After starting the control simulation:

ros2 run elite_robots_simulation_gz gz_control.py --example

To load waypoints from a YAML file:

ros2 run elite_robots_simulation_gz gz_control.py --from-yaml /path/to/waypoints.yaml

Each waypoint must contain six joint positions and may specify its duration:

- positions: [0.0, -1.57, 0.0, -1.57, 0.0, 0.0]
  duration: 2.0

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Changelog for package elite_robots_simulation_gz

1.0.2 (2026-09-28)

• Bridge Gazebo simulation time to ROS /clock and add the ros_gz_bridge and rosgraph_msgs runtime dependencies
• Fix the MoveIt launch include to use elite_moveit.launch.py, select the unscaled trajectory controller with use_fake_hardware:=true, and disable Servo for simulation
• Expose gz_args in the control launch and launch_rviz in the MoveIt launch to support server-only simulation without Gazebo GUI or RViz
• Document separate MoveIt startup, consistent simulation time, ROS domain isolation to avoid conflicting drivers, and server-only launch commands

1.0.1 (2026-09-18)

• Remove the unnecessary CMake lookup for rclpy to fix configuration failures in ROS build farm builds
• Retain rclpy as a runtime dependency for the Python control script

1.0.0 (2026-07-29)

• Split the Gazebo simulation into a standalone ROS 2 package
• Rename the package to elite_robots_simulation_gz
• Update the MoveIt configuration dependency to elite_robots_moveit_config
• Add launch, controller configuration, and Gazebo trajectory-control files
• Add package documentation
• Contributors: Chen Shichao