Extensible Robotic Beamline Scientist

Project repository for building extensible robotic beamline scientists at NSLS-II.

Contents

Hello Moveit

Demonstrations using a combination of the MoveIt tutorials and some UR specific tools, to show how to make simple actions that can deploy MoveIt using the MoveGroupInterface.

Bluesky ROS

Ongoing developments of integrating ROS2 and Bluesky. Currently targeted towards integrating Ophyd Objects as ROS2 Action Clients.

Containers

• ursim: Will run a simulated robot and teach pendant to be accessed by VNC. Has preloaded programs and IP configuration for reverse control by ROS2.
• ur-driver: Runs the ROS2 driver for controlling the robot in simulator
• ur-moveit: Runs MoveIt configured to the UR and optionally RViz to be accessed by VNC
• ur-example: Generally unused example movement for testing.

Using Docker

Running the ur-example

In order to run the ur-example with Docker, follow this procedure:

1. Create the required images.

cd docker
docker build -t ursim:latest ./ursim
docker build -t ur-driver:latest ./ur-driver
docker build -t ur-example:latest ./ur-example

2. Start the UR Simulator. In a new terminal, run

docker compose up ursim

Open VNC client at localhost:5900. Turn on and start the robot. Go to the Move tab and click the Home button. Press and hold the Move robot to: New position button to move the robot into position. Press Continue. Verify the joint position is [0, -90, 0, -90, 0, 0] degrees.

Note: setting initial position is requried for the ur-example to start, as specified in the test_goal_publisher_config.yaml file in the official Unviersal_Robots_ROS2_Driver repo.

3. Start the ur-driver. In a new terminal, run

docker compose up urdriver

Now, go back to the VNC client. In the Program tab, start the program.

4. Run the ur-example. In a new terminal, run

docker compose up urexample

The in Program/Graphics tab, the robot should be moving between four poses every 6 seconds.

Notes on VSCode Workspace

VSCode ROS2 Workspace Template Borrowed from @althack.

This template will get you set up using ROS2 with VSCode as your IDE. And help ensure consistent development across the project.

See how she develops with vscode and ros2 for a more in-depth look on how to use this workspace.

ROS2-approved formatters are included in the IDE.

• c++ uncrustify; config from ament_uncrustify
• python autopep8; vscode settings consistent with the style guide

Notes on pdf_beamtime and its tests

pdf_beamtime is a work-in-progress package aiming to deploy the UR3e robot arm + HandE gripper at the PDF beamline. This package depends on pdf_beamtime_interfaces. Follow the link below for information on the package and for the commands to call the servers implemented in the package.

Link to pdf_beamtime README