Custom ROS packages for the UR3 Robot with a gripper Robotiq 85 and the UR3e robot with a gripper Robotiq Hand-e. Tested on Ros Kinetic Ubuntu 16.04. Python 2.7 and 3.6. Preferibly use Python 3.6. Also tested on Ros Melodic Ubuntu 18.04. Python 2.7 and 3.6. Preferibly use Python 3.6.

For ROS Melodic Ubuntu 18.04. Two dependencies repositories has to be updated: gazebo_ros_link_attacher and robotiq. Both git repositories have a "melodic-devel" branch. Moving those 2 repositories to the melodic-devel branch makes this repository compatible with ROS Melodic.

To visualize the model of the robot with a gripper, launch the following:

$ roslaunch ur3_description display_with_gripper.launch

You can then use the sliders to change the joint values and the gripper values.

To simulate the robot launch the following:

$ roslaunch ur3_gazebo ur3_cubes.launch grasp_plugin:=1

or using ur3e:

$ roslaunch ur3_gazebo ur3e_cubes.launch grasp_plugin:=1

By default the simulation starts paused. Unpause the simulation. You can then send commands to the joints or to the gripper.

An example of sending joints values to the robot can be executed as follows:

$ rosrun ur_control sim_controller_examples.py -m

To change the values of the joints, the file sim_controller_examples.py must be modified.

Similarly, the script include examples to control the robot's end-effector position, gripper and an example of performing grasping. Execute the following command to see the available examples.

$ rosrun ur_control sim_controller_examples.py --help

An easy way to control the robot using the keyboard can be found in the script:

$ rosrun ur_control joint_position_keyboard.py

Press SPACE to get a list of all valid commands to control either each independent joint or the end effector position x,y,z and rotations. To have access to the gripper controller include the option --gripper

Another option of easy control is using rqt

To test the MoveIt configuration with the UR3/UR3e start one of the gazebo environments, such as:

roslaunch ur3_gazebo ur3e_cubes.launch

Then load the MoveIt configuration

roslaunch ur3e_hande_moveit_config start_moveit.launch

Then execute the tutorial

rosrun ur_control moveit_tutorial.py --tutorial