Universal_Robots_ROS2_Description

This repository contains description files and meshes for Universal Robots manipulators.

Build status

ROS2 Distro	Branch	Build status	Released packages
Humble	humble		ur_description
Iron	iron		ur_description
Jazzy	rolling		ur_description
Rolling	rolling		ur_description

A more detailed build status shows the state of all CI workflows inside this repo. Please note that the detailed view is intended for developers, while the one here should give end users an overview of the current released state.

License

The UR20 meshes and UR30 meshes constitutes “Graphical Documentation” the use of which is subject to and governed by our “Terms and Conditions for use of Graphical Documentation”.

Universal Robots’ Terms and Conditions for use of Graphical Documentation do not fully comply with OSI’s definition of Open Source, but they do allow you to use, modify and share “Graphical Documentation”, including UR20 and UR30 meshes, subject to certain restrictions.
If you have any questions regarding this license or if this license doesn’t fit your use-case, please contact legal@universal-robots.com.

All other content is licensed under the BSD-3-Clause license

Structure of the repository

The most relevant files are:

• urdf/ur_macro.xacro - macro file with UR-manipulator description. This file is usually included into external projects to visualize and configure UR manipulators properly. An example how to use this macro is in urdf/ur.urdf.xacro file.
• urdf/ur.ros2_control.xacro - definition of manipulator’s joints and interfaces for ros2_control framework.

Testing description of a manipulator

To visualize the robot install this repository to you workspace and execute the following:

ros2 launch ur_description view_ur.launch.py ur_type:=ur5e

To test other descriptions change the ur_type argument.

Package / Description structure

This package uses one description for all robots. The different robot variants are configured using four configuration files. These files can also be changed for further customizing a description.

Basically, the description can be modified using configuration values stored in four files:

• config/urXX/default_kinematics.yaml - This contains the calibration values as they can be extracted from the robot. Changing these values with the one extracted from a real robot will result in a description matching the real robot exactly (w.r.t the tool0 frame). It is highly recommended to use matching kinematic values in real-world applications.
• config/urXX/joint_limits.yaml - If you’d like to further restrict the robot’s joint limits, these limits can be modified there.
• config/urXX/physical_parameters.yaml - Everything regarding physics simulation parameters (e.g. inertia poses and values) can be tuned here
• config/urXX/visual_parameters.yaml - Some users change certain visual aspects, e.g. replacing the cap on the wrist_3_link. This config file specifies which meshes (both, visual and collision) should be used.

The four configuration files have to be passed to ur_macro.urdf (more specific to the macro defined in that file) which is done inside the ur.urdf.macro. Contents of the files are parsed inside ur_common.xacro.

Arguments that have to be passed to the main ur.urdf.xacro file are:

• kinematics_params - Filename to the default_kinematics.yaml (or equivalent specific kinematics) file
• joint_limit_params - Filename to the joint_limits.yaml file
• physical_params - Filename to the physical_parameters.yaml file
• visual_params - Filename to the visual_params.yaml file

The launchfile launch/view_ur.launch.py abstracts these four parameters to one ur_type argument which will basically replace the urXX part of the paths as shown in the picture above.

Creating your own description including this description

In real-world applications you will most probably have a more complex description consisting of more objects than just the robot. It is recommended to create a separate ROS package containing this particular description. Inside this description you could also store your robot-specific kinematics parameters file.

As mentioned above, see the urdf/ur.urdf.xacro file as an example to integrate a UR robot into your scene description. Basically, you could create a copy of that file and extend it with the modifications from your specific scene.

Changelog for package ur_description

2.3.3 (2024-10-28)

• Add analog_output_domain_cmd command interface (#219)
• Add a sensor for the TCP pose (backport of #197)
• Add missing state interfaces for get_version service (#216)
• Ur3 infinite wrist (backport of #196)
• Update dynamic properties (backport of #195)
• Contributors: Felix Exner (fexner), mergify[bot], Rune Søe-Knudsen

2.3.2 (2024-09-10)

• Fix masses of robot links (backport of #187)
• Contributors: Felix Exner

2.3.1 (2024-08-09)

• Added dynamics tag when using mock_components/GenericSystem (#175)
• Remove ros2_control limit params (#167)
• Add Jazzy to the README (#164)
• Contributors: Felix Exner, Niccolo

2.3.0 (2024-04-25)

• Update CI for iron
• Fix multi-line strings in DeclareLaunchArgument (backport of #140) (#154) Co-authored-by: Matthijs van der Burgh <<matthijs.vander.burgh@live.nl>>
• Fix default calibration file for UR30 (#151)
• Update description for using gz The ign libs don't exist anymore on iron.
• Contributors: Felix Exner, Matthijs van der Burgh

2.1.4 (2024-04-04)

• Update Graphical Documentation license to version 1.01 (#143)
• Add UR30 model (#142)
• Make sure the UR5 models are actually standing on the ground (#136)
• Contributors: Felix Exner, RobertWilbrandt, Vincenzo Di Pentima

2.1.3 (2023-12-18)

• Make ros2_control tag generation optional in macro (#121)
• Contributors: Felix Exner (fexner)

2.1.2 (2023-11-17)

• Add license comment to package.xml (#107)
• License update for README (#108)
• Default to non_blocking_read=true (#115)
• added possibility to change reverse_port, script_sender_port and trajectory_port (#105) (#106)
• Update README regarding distribution branches (#80) (#86)
• Contributors: Felix Exner, Rune Søe-Knudsen, mergify[bot]

2.1.1 (2023-09-08)

• Update the joint limits for UR20 (#99)
• UR20 description and meshes (#94) The UR20 meshes are added under Universal Robots A/S’ Terms and Conditions for Use of Graphical Documentation Co-authored-by: Rune Søe-Knudsen <<41109954+urrsk@users.noreply.github.com>>
• Revert "Switch fake to mock for ros2_control updates (#77)"
• Switch fake to mock for ros2_control updates (#77)
• CI: Add iron workflow (#64)
• Contributors: Felix Exner, Sebastian Castro, Rune Søe-Knudsen

2.1.0 (2023-06-01)

• added missing handback interface - ros2control mock interface won't work otherwise (#68) Co-authored-by: Lennart Nachtigall <<lennart.nachtigall@sci-mo.de>>
• remove ticks from tf_prefix (#60) Co-authored-by: Lennart Nachtigall <<lennart.nachtigall@sci-mo.de>>
• Replace duplicated prefix parameter with tf_prefix
• Whitespace fixes
• Update pre-commit workflows to current versions
• This commits adds additional configuration fields which are needed for multiarm support: (#47)
  • Added trajectory_port - Port needed for the trajectory sending interface
  • Added non_blocking_read - Takes control of the update rate from ur interface by immediately returning from the read method

  - Added keep_alive_count field - Configures the amount of allowed reading timeouts on the robot side Additionally it adds the ${prefix} argument for the gpios and the force torque sensor in the ur.ros2_control.xacro file Co-authored-by: Lennart Nachtigall <<firesurfer@firesurfer.de>>

• Set the default tool voltage in the description to 0 (#41) I am not sure whether this will actually affect something, as I don't think we actually set the value initially, but it still makes sense to keep the default tool voltage at 0 to emphasize that by default, this will not be set higher.
• Run prerelease tests on current distros (#44)
• Contributors: Felix Exner, Felix Exner (fexner), Lennart Nachtigall

2.0.1 (2022-11-08)

• Add tool voltage and zero ft sensor to command interface (#38) Added reverse ip and script command interface port as parameters
• use xacro.load_yaml in favor of deprecated version (#43) Co-authored-by: aditya <<aditya@nimble.ai>>
• Use mock_components instead of fake_components (#37) This has been renamed in ros2_control hardware_interface.
• Prepare for branching out galactic (#39)
  • Add Humble to README and workflows
  • Use galactic branch for galactic stuff
• Contributors: Abishalini Sivaraman, Aditya Agarwal, Felix Exner, Mads Holm Peters

2.0.0 (2022-03-17)

• Migrated the description to ROS2
• Added support for Gazebo and Ignition
• Added ROS2_control definitions
• Contributors: AndyZe, Denis Stogl, Denis Štogl, Felix Exner, John Morris, Jorge Nicho, Lovro, Lukas Sackewitz, Marvin Große Besselmann, Robert Wilbrandt, Tirine, Vatan Aksoy Tezer, livanov93, urmahp

1.2.7 (2019-11-23)

1.2.6 (2019-11-19)

• Add optional safety_controller tags to all joints in xacro macros (#437)
• Migrated all package.xml files to format=2 (#439)
• Corrected dimensions and positions of inertias (#426)
• Add description view launch files for all descriptions to easily check them (#435)
• Contributors: Felix Mauch, JeremyZoss, Miguel Prada, Qiang Qiu, gavanderhoorn

1.2.5 (2019-04-05)

• Add transmission_hw_interface to UR xacro and expose everywhere (#392)
• Update maintainer listing: add Miguel (#410)
• Updated xacro namespace.
• Update maintainer and author information.
• Updated mesh ambience so the model isn't so dark in Gazebo
• Fix overlapping variable names between robot definition files (#356)
• Improve meshes shading (#233)
• Added run_depend for xacro
• Using the 'doc' attribute on 'arg' elements.
• Enable self collision in gazebo
• Contributors: Dave Niewinski, Felix von Drigalski, Harsh Deshpande, Joe, Marcel Schnirring, Miguel Prada, MonteroJJ, ipa-fxm

1.2.1 (2018-01-06)

• Merge pull request #329 from tecnalia-medical-robotics/joint_limits Homogenize xacro macro arguments.
• Merge pull request #332 from davetcoleman/kinetic_hw_iface_warning Remove UR3 ROS Control Hardware Interface warning
• Remove UR3 ROS Control Hardware Interface warning
• Extend changes to '_robot.urdf.xacro' variants as well.
• Homogenize xacro macro arguments. Joint limits for the limited version could be set using arguments for the UR10 but not for the UR3 and UR5. Same lower and upper limit arguments are added to the UR3 and UR5 xacro macros.
• Fix elbow joint limits (#268)
• Remove warning 'redefining global property: pi' (Jade+) (#315)
• Contributors: Beatriz Leon, Dave Coleman, Felix Messmer, Miguel Prada

1.2.0 (2017-08-04)

1.1.9 (2017-01-02)

• reintroduce 'pi', unbrake dependent xacros.
• use '--inorder' to trigger use of jade+ xacro on Indigo.
• Contributors: gavanderhoorn

1.1.8 (2016-12-30)

• all: update maintainers.
• Contributors: gavanderhoorn

1.1.7 (2016-12-29)

• Fix xacro warnings in Jade (#251)
• added default values to xacro macro
• tested joint limits modification
• Contributors: Dave Coleman, G.A. vd. Hoorn, philip 14.04

1.1.6 (2016-04-01)

• unify mesh names
• add color to avoid default color 'red' for collision meshes
• use correct DH parameter + colored meshes
• introducing urdf for ur3 - first draft
• unify common xacro files
• remove obsolete urdf files
• description: add '_joint' suffix to newly introduced joint tags. This is more in-line with naming of existing joint tags.
• description: add ROS-I base and tool0 frames. Fix #49 and #95. Note that 'base' is essentially 'base_link' but rotated by 180 degrees over the Z-axis. This is necessary as the visual and collision geometries appear to also have their origins rotated 180 degrees wrt the real robot. 'tool0' is similar to 'ee_link', but with its orientation such that it coincides with an all-zeros TCP setting on the UR controller. Users are expected to attach their own TCP frames to this frame, instead of updating it (see also [1]). [1] http://wiki.ros.org/Industrial/Tutorials/WorkingWithRosIndustrialRobotSupportPackages#Standardised_links\_.2BAC8_frames
• description: minor whitespace cleanup of UR5 & 10 xacros.
• regenerate urdf files
• use PositionJointInterface as hardwareInterface in transmissions - affects simulation only
• Contributors: gavanderhoorn, ipa-fxm

1.0.2 (2014-03-31)

1.0.1 (2014-03-31)

• changes due to file renaming
• generate urdfs from latest xacros
• file renaming
• adapt launch files in order to be able to use normal/limited xacro
• fixed typo in limits
• add joint_limited urdf.xacros for both robots
• (re-)add ee_link for both robots
• updates for latest gazebo under hydro
• remove ee_link - as in ur10
• use same xacro params as ur10
• use new transmission interfaces
• update xml namespaces for hydro
• remove obsolete urdf file
• remove obsolete urdf file
• Contributors: ipa-fxm
• Update ur10.urdf.xacro Corrected UR10's urdf to faithfully represent joint effort thresholds, velocity limits, and dynamics parameters.
• Update ur5.urdf.xacro Corrected effort thresholds and friction values for UR5 urdf.
• added corrected mesh file
• Added definitions for adding tergets in install folder. Issue #10.
• Corrected warning on xacro-files in hydro.
• Added definitions for adding tergets in install folder. Issue #10.
• Updated to catkin. ur_driver's files were added to nested Python directory for including in other packages.
• fixed name of ur5 transmissions
• patched gazebo.urdf.xacro to be compatible with gazebo 1.5
• fixed copy&paste error (?)
• prefix versions of gazebo and transmission macros
• Added joint limited urdf and associated moveit package. The joint limited package is friendlier to the default KLD IK solution
• Added ur5 moveit library. The Kinematics used by the ur5 move it library is unreliable and should be replaced with the ur_kinematics
• Updated urdf files use collision/visual models.
• Reorganized meshes to include both collision and visual messhes (like other ROS-I robots). Modified urdf xacro to include new models. Removed extra robot pedestal link from urdf (urdfs should only include the robot itself).
• minor changes on ur5 xacro files
• Removed extra stl files and fixed indentions
• Renamed packages and new groovy version
• Added ur10 and renamed packages
• Contributors: Denis Štogl, IPR-SR2, Kelsey, Mathias Lüdtke, Shaun Edwards, ipa-nhg, jrgnicho, kphawkins, robot