MoveIt Visual Tools

Helper functions for displaying and debugging MoveIt data in Rviz via published markers, trajectories, and MoveIt collision objects. It is sometimes hard to understand everything that is going on internally with MoveIt, but using these quick convenience functions allows one to easily visualize their code. This package is built in top of rviz_visual_tools and all those features are included via class inheritance.

This package helps you visualize:

• Basic Rviz geometric shapes
• MoveIt collision objects
• MoveIt and ROS trajectories
• Robot states
• End effectors
• Interactive markers to move robot arms using IK from remote applications

This open source project was developed at PickNik Robotics. Need professional ROS development and consulting? Contact us at projects@picknik.ai for a free consultation.

Status:

ROS:

• Github Actions
• ROS Buildfarm - AMD64 Focal Source Build - Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
• ROS Buildfarm - AMD64 Focal Devel Build - Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

ROS2:

• GHA: Build and Test
• GHA: Formatting

ROS2 Install

Install From Source

Install moveit2 following the instructions here. After sourcing the moveit workspace clone this repository into a colcon workspace, import and install dependencies and build:

source ~/ws_moveit/install/setup.bash
cd $COLCON_WS/src
git clone -b ros2 https://github.com/ros-planning/moveit_visual_tools
vcs import < moveit_visual_tools/moveit_visual_tools.repos
rosdep install -r --from-paths . --ignore-src --rosdistro foxy -y
cd $COLCON_WS
colcon build --event-handlers desktop_notification- status- --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

Quick Start Demo

To run some demos displaying robot states and collision objects:

ros2 launch moveit_visual_tools demo_rviz.launch.py

Code API

See VisualTools Class Reference

Usage

We’ll assume you will be using these helper functions within a class.

Initialize

Add to your includes:

#include <moveit_visual_tools/moveit_visual_tools.h>

Add to your class’s member variables:

// For visualizing things in rviz
moveit_visual_tools::MoveItVisualToolsPtr visual_tools_;

In your class’ constructor add:

visual_tools_ = std::make_shared<moveit_visual_tools::MoveItVisualTools>(node_, "world", "/moveit_visual_tools");

Collision Object Functions

Helpers for adding and removing objects from the MoveIt planning scene. CO stands for Collision Object and ACO stands for Active Collision Object.

• cleanupCO
• cleanupACO
• attachCO
• publishCollisionBlock
• publishCollisionCylinder
• publishCollisionTree
• publishCollisionTable
• publishCollisionWall

And more…

Animate Trajectories

Higher level robot and trajectory functions

• publishTrajectoryPath
• publishTrajectoryPoint
• publishRobotState
• publishAnimatedGrasps
• publishIKSolutions

Show parts of a robot

These functions are a little more complicated

• publishEEMarkers

Parent Class

This class is built on top of rviz_visual_tools so all features and documentation for that package apply here as well.

Developers Notes

Useful notes for anyone wanting to dig in deeper:

• All poses are published with respect to the world frame e.g. /world, /odom, or maybe /base
• All publish() ROS topics should be followed by a rclcpp::spin_some(node); but no sleep
• Do not want to load any features/publishers until they are actually needed since this library contains so many components

Linting (pre-commit)

pre-commit is a tool that is used in moveit2_tutorials to check and apply style guidelines automatically. To install pre-commit into your system:

pip3 install pre-commit

Then under moveit2_tutorials directory install the git hooks like this:

cd $COLCON_WS/src/moveit2_tutorials && pre-commit install

With this pre-commit will automatically run and check a list of styling including clang-format, end of files and trailing whitespaces whenever you run git commit. To run pre-commit any time other than git commit:

cd $COLCON_WS/src/moveit2_tutorials && pre-commit run -a

Contribute

Please send PRs for new helper functions, fixes, etc!

Changelog for package moveit_visual_tools

4.1.2 (2025-02-01)

• Enhancement/use hpp for headers based on PR https://github.com/moveit/moveit2/pull/3113 (#147)
• Contributors: Cihat Kurtuluş Altıparmak

4.1.1 (2024-11-29)

• CI: Fix broken pre-commit action
• CI: Return to custom cache action
• Update status badges in README
• Fix typo in warning message (#141)
• CI: Fix ament_flake8 issues
• CI: Update actions
• Default state publisher topic to DISPLAY_ROBOT_STATE_TOPIC (#135)
• Update GHA (#128)
• publishTrajectoryLine(): issue error when no end-effector tips are found (#127)
• Switch to clang-format-14 (#126)
• Typo fix (#124)
• Update README.md (#122)
• Humble CI and clang-format updates (#120)
• Contributors: Henning Kayser, Mario Prats, Paul Draghicescu, Robert Haschke, Stephanie Eng, Vatan Aksoy Tezer, mosfet80

4.1.0 (2022-05-09)

• Update black version (#117)
• Jammy fixes and clang-format-12 (#116)
• Fixed deprecated call to PlanningSceneMonitor's constructor (#108)
• Remove Foxy CI builds (#111)
• Generate license using ament_copyright (#105)
• Contributors: Jafar Abdi, Stephanie Eng, Vatan Aksoy Tezer

4.0.0 (2021-09-27)

• Port to ros2 (#92)
• Fix typo in package.xml (#87)
• Contributors: Davide Faconti, Felix von Drigalski, Vatan Aksoy Tezer

3.6.0 (2020-10-09)

• [feature] Unified collision environment used (#54)
• [feature] publish cuboids with size (#59)
• [feature] hideRobot(): use new .hide member of DisplayRobotState msg (#56)
• [feature] Use first trajectory point as start state for visualization (#49)
• [feature] exposing the publishers to the user (#48)
• [feature] Highlight selected links in publishRobotState() + improved collision visualization (#45)
• [fix] Update to Noetic and fix various warnings (#79)
• [fix] Fix Eigen alignment (#63)
• [fix] missing end effector markers because clear (#51)
• [fix] Remove #attempts from setFromIK (#43)
• [documentation] Update README.md (#69)
• [documentation] update doc of hideRobot() (#64)
• [maint] add soname version (#74)
• [maint] Replace tf_conversions with tf2's toMsg / fromMsg (#66)
• [maint] fix clang-tidy issue (#68)
• [maint] Cleanup (#65)
  • Replace robot_model and robot_state namespaces by moveit::core
  • Fix clang-tidy issues
  • Remove deprecated function
• [maint] Bump required cmake version (#62)
• [maint] moveit.rosinstall: use master branch for all deps (#57)
• [maint] drop melodic + kinetic support for master branch (#58)
• [maint] Fix Travis config + issues (#47)
• [maint] Change 'MoveIt!' to MoveIt
• Contributors: Bjar Ne, Dave Coleman, Henning Kayser, Jafar Abdi, Jens P, Mark Moll, Michael Görner, Mike Lautman, Robert Haschke, Tyler Weaver

3.5.2 (2018-12-10)

• Use LOGNAME for named logging (#42)
• Eigen::Affine3d -> Eigen::Isometry3d (#39)
• Contributors: Dave Coleman

3.5.1 (2018-11-14)

• Adding trigger call to animations when batch_publishing_enabled_ is enabled (#36)
• Contributors: Mike Lautman

3.5.0 (2018-09-05)

• Add Markdown ROS Buildfarm badges for Melodic
• Fixing melodic branch with tf2 updates (#34)
• Additional visualization (#31)
  • adding a visualization for publishing a box with width, height, and depth
  • adding additional publishCollisionCuboid method overloads
  • changing x,y,z to width, depth, height
• Fixup CMakeLists and package.xml (#30)
• Triggering UPDATE_GEOMETRY is sufficient, dont spinOnce
  • triggering UPDATE_SCENE leads to sending a full planning scene including all meshes. For all use-cases in this lib UPDATE_GEOMETRY is sufficient and sends only diffs
  • calling ros::spinOnce() in random places messes up the event queue (e.g. joint state updates being processed in gui thread instead of the async spinner thread)
• Fix API compatibility by providing a default empty list of end-effector joints
• Allow setting joint values for end-effector marker currently end-effector markers are based on the default robot state (ie all zero), this allows passing a vector of doubles for all active joint in the end-effector group Passing a new set of joint values will invalidate the cache but for our use-case this is neglectible and could be optimized later
• Moved boost::shared_ptr to std for tf2
• Converted to use tf2 moveit interfaces
• Fix broken CI for Melodic
• Fix Continuous Integration
• Contributors: Dave Coleman, Ian McMahon, Mike Lautman, Simon Schmeisser

3.4.0 (2017-12-27)

• Apply current MoveIt clang-format
• Various improvements needed while finishing planning thesis
• Fix greater than/less than issue in clearance check
• Ability to specify clearance for random state
• Small threading fixes
• imarker: Fix setToRandomState() imarker: Switch to std::makeshared
• Improve console output
• Contributors: Dave Coleman, Mike Lautman

3.3.0 (2017-06-20)

• Change error message to warning
• Make planning scene monitor publicly exposed
• Remove label from imarkers
• Ability to move a collision object without removing it first
• IMarkerRobotState: update imarkers location when setting robot state
• IMarkerRobotState: Added setRobotState()
• IMarkerRobotState: Renamed function publishRobotState()
• MoveItVisualTools: renamed variable to psm_
• Expose verbose collision checking
• Contributors: Dave Coleman

3.2.1 (2016-11-02)

• New publishTrajectoryPath() functions
• New publishTrajectoryLine() functions
• getRobotState() return by reference
• Trajectory path has smaller vertices
• IMarkerRobotState: added isStateValid()
• Contributors: Dave Coleman

3.2.0 (2016-10-20)

• Added publishState() to imarker_robot_state
• New publishTrajectoryLine() function that automatically chooses end effectors to visualize
• New collision table function that takes z input
• Fixed callbacks for multiple EEFs
• Allow for two end effectors
• Ability to use two end effectors for interactive markers
• Make ik solving at any end effector link, not just end of kinematic chain
• Better debugging for collision
• Only save when mouse up
• Fix API for changes in rviz_visual_tools
• Allow collision walls to have variable z location
• Make applyVirtualJointTransform() static
• Make checkForVirtualJoint() static
• IMarkerRobotState remove offset capability
• IMarkerRobotState remove imarker box control
• Switched travis to MoveIt CI
• Added new IMarker Robot control method
• Cleaned up code base: catkin lint, roslint
• Fixed bug in planning scene triggering
• Optimize planning scene updates to only update GEOMETRY
• Fix xacro
• Upgrade to Eigen3 per ROS Kinetic requirements
• New publishRobotState() function
• Fix Eigen bugs
• Removed deprecated code
• Converted to C++11
• Optional blocking publisher calls
• Added getter for getRobotRootState()
• Contributors: Dave Coleman

3.1.0 (2016-04-28)

• Re-factored and fixed visual tools demo!
• Fixes for catkin lint
• Fixes for roslint
• Removed deprecated function call
• Remove deprecated test
• New root_robot_state utilization
• Ablity to move a RobotState's root frame permenatly around in the scene
• Better publishCollisionWall() function
• Deprecated old publishTrajectoryLine() functions - removed clear_all_markers argument
• New publishTrajectoryPath() variant
• Rename namespace of RobotState
• Made INFO into DEBUG output
• New publishTrajectoryLine function
• Switched publishTrajectoryLine to use cylinders instead of lines
• New showJointLimits() function for console debugging a robot state
• Fix publishTrajectoryPath() bug
• Default blocking time for trajectory if not parameterized
• Publish workspace parameters was incorrectly creating a collision object
• Contributors: Dave Coleman

3.0.5 (2016-02-09)

• Updated README
• Better comment
• Contributors: Dave Coleman

3.0.4 (2016-01-12)

• Removed stray debug output
• Improved debugging output for the hideRobot() feature and virtual_joints
• Contributors: Dave Coleman

3.0.3 (2016-01-10)

• Renamed test to demo
• New publishTrajectoryLine() function
• Fix travis
• Deprecated loadEEMarker() that uses string
• Formatted code
• Switched from MOVEIT deprecated to RVIZ_VISUAL_TOOLS deprecated
• Fixed shared_robot_state to initialize correctly every time
• Switched to using name_ variables
• Add error checks to publishTrajectoryLine
• Added ability for publishTrajectoryLine to clear all previous markers
• Contributors: Dave Coleman

3.0.2 (2015-12-27)

• Updated README
• Temp fix missing variable
• Contributors: Dave Coleman

3.0.1 (2015-12-05)

• catkin lint cleanup
• Fix travis
• Contributors: Dave Coleman

3.0.0 (2015-12-02)

• Release 3.0
• Added travis support
• fix the how to link a demo img
• Updated link to Doxygen API description
• Formatting and better debug output
• Fix hide robot bug
• Remove incompatible humanoid function
• Default color when publishing collision meshes
• Added error check for bad value
• API change for removal of shape_tools
• New publish trajectory line function
• Remove slash from topic name
• Removed mute functionality
• Improved loading efficiency
• publishContactPoints accepts a color
• Change topics to default when opening Rviz
• New publishCollisionMesh() function
• Changed publishCollisionMesh() API
• Renamed publishCollisionRectangle to publishCollisionCuboid()
• Updated rviz_visual_tools API
• New publishMesh from ROS msg function
• publishRobotState() for a RobotStateMsg now allows color
• publishTrajectoryPath() for a ROS msg now requires a RobotState
• New method for attaching collision objects that does not require a publisher
• Specify scene name and cleanup logging
• Fixed error checking for hideRobot() function
• loadTrajectoryPub() allows custom topic
• New publishTrajectoryPoints() function
• New publishContactPoints function
• New publishTrajectoryPath() function
• New getRobotModel() function
• New ability to visualize IK solutions with arbitrary virtual joint
• API Broken: ability to have different end effectors for different arms, auto EE marker loading
• Publish collision meshes
• Added check for virtual joint
• Fixed which arrow gets published
• Publish fixed link arrows to show footstep locations
• Ability to specify robot_state_topic without loading the publisher
• Contributors: Dave Coleman, Daiki Maekawa, simonschmeisser

2.2.0 (2015-01-07)

• Code cleanup
• Improved naming
• Joint model bug fix
• Improved speed of sending collision objects to Rviz Added Manual planning scene update mode Ability to apply colors to all collision objects (YAY) API: removed removeAllCollisionObjectsPS function Removed loadPlanningPub() function Removed publishRemoveAllCollisionObjects() function
• Added backwards compatibile loadCollisionSceneFromFile()
• New publishCollisionRectangle function API: Changed loadCollisionSceneFromFile() to accept a pose instead of x,y
• Fix for renamed function
• New publishWorkspaceParameters() function
• Added ability to publish robot states with color
• Fixed install method
• Merge pull request #5 from robomakery/feature/fix-collision-objects-test
• Fixes for missing declarations in collision_objects_test.cpp
• Refactored how collision ojects are published Created new collision objects test and roslaunch file Optimized header file Removed loadCollisionPub() function Fixed publishCollisionFloor Added publishCollisionRectangle
• Contributors: Dave Coleman, Dylan Vaughn

2.1.0 (2014-10-31)

• Fix for upstream change of RvizVisualTools
• Set animation speed of grasps
• Fix publishing end effector
• New publishCollisionObjectMsg() function
• New getSharedRobotState() accessor function
• Consolidated publish marker functions
• Fixed loadEEMarker() to be called more than once
• Contributors: Dave Coleman

2.0.0 (2014-10-27)

• Updated README
• API Upgrade Notes
• Renamed to have 'MoveIt' prefix in class and file name, moved base functionality to rviz_visual_tools
• Added new publishSphere function and publish_sphere test script
• Created better test script
• Better static_id handling for publishText
• Added mainpage for API docs
• Enabled colors
• Improved integer random num generation
• New publishSpheres functions
• Contributors: Dave Coleman

1.3.0 (2014-09-17)

• Added new getRandColor() function
• Added TRANSLUCENT color
• Added two new publishSphere() functions
• New convertPointToPose function
• Reduced sleep timer for starting all publishers from 0.5 seconds to 0.2 seconds
• Removed stacktrace tool because already exists in moveit_core
• New publishText function that allows custom scale and id number be passed in
• Removed deprecated getEEParentLink() function
• Added new scale sizes
• Added new processCollisionObvMsg()
• Added new setPlanningSceneMonitor()
• Deprecated removeAllColisionObejcts()
• Created new removeAllCollisionObjectsPS()
• Added new publishCollisionFloor()
• Added new loadCollisionSceneFromFile()
• New color purple
• Added new setBaseFrame() function
• Contributors: Dave Coleman

1.2.1 (2014-08-11)

• Renamed base_link to base_frame
• Added new getBaseFrame() function
• Deprecated getBaseLink() function
• Contributors: Dave Coleman

1.2.0 (2014-08-08)

• Added XXLarge size
• Added global_scale feature
• Added hideRobot() functionality
• Added removeAllCollisionObjects from planning scene monitor
• Added publishCollisionSceneFromFile function
• Formatting
• Contributors: Dave Coleman

1.1.0 (2014-07-31)

• Bug fixes
• Fixed convertPoint32ToPose
• Added scale to publishText
• New publishPolygon, publishMarker, convertPose, convertPointToPose, and convertPoint32 functions
• New deleteAllMarkers, publishPath, publishSpheres, and convertPoseToPoint functions
• Added getCollisionWall
• Made lines darker
• Added reset marker feature
• Namespaces for publishSphere
• New publishTrajectory function
• Merging features from OMPL viewer
• Refactored functions, new robot_model intialization
• Added more rand functions and made them static
• Added graph_msgs generated messages dependence so it waits for it to be compiled
• Updated README
• Contributors: Dave Coleman, Sammy Pfeiffer

1.0.1 (2014-05-30)

• Updated README
• Indigo support
• Fix for strict cppcheck and g++ warnings/errors
• Compatibilty fix for Eigen package in ROS Indigo
• Fix uninitialized
• Fix functions with no return statement and other cppcheck errors
• Contributors: Bence Magyar, Dave Coleman, Jordi Pages

1.0.0 (2014-05-05)

• Enabled dual arm manipulation
• Removed notions of a global planning group, ee group name, or ee parent link.
• Changed functionality of loadEEMarker
• Added new print function
• Made getPlanningSceneMonitor() private function
• Renamed loadPathPub()
• Added tool for visualizing unmangled stack trace
• Created function for publishing non-animated grasps
• Created new publishGraph function. Renamed publishCollisionTree to publishCollisionGraph
• Created functions for loading publishers with a delay
• Removed old method of removing all collision objects
• Created better testing functionality
• Changed return type from void to bool for many functions
• Changed way trajectory is timed
• Created new publishIKSolutions() function for grasp poses, etc
• Added new MoveIt robot state functionality
• Added visualize grasp functionality
• Removed unnecessary run dependencies
• Updated README

0.2.0 (2014-04-11)

• Improved header comments are re-ordered functions into groups
• Started to create new trajectory point publisher
• Added getBaseLink function
• Added dependency on graph_msgs
• Added new collision cylinder functionality
• Created example code in README
• Renamed visualization to visual keyword
• Updated README

0.1.0 (2014-04-04)

• Split moveit_visual_tools from its original usage within block_grasp_generator package