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README.md

abb_egm_hardware_interface

Please note that this package has not been productized, and that academia is the intended audience.
The package is provided "as-is", and as such no more than limited support can be expected.

Overview

The abb_egm_hardware_interface package provides:

  • A ros_control-based hardware interface, for communicating with ABB robots via the Externally Guided Motion (EGM) interface:
    • Recommendations:
      • Use RobotStudio simulations before testing with real robots.
      • Use the latest supported RobotWare version to get the best EGM performance.
    • The hardware interface sets up EGM servers that the robot can send feedback messages to, and receive motion commands from:
      • It is always the robot that initiates EGM communication sessions.
    • The hardware interface will only allow ros_control controllers to be started if there is already an active EGM communication session:
      • Users can specify a list of controllers that are always ok to start (e.g. passive state controllers).
    • For MultiMove systems it is important to note that:
      • The ROS side configurations must specify correct names for the mechanical unit groups that are intended to be used with EGM.
      • Activation/deactivation of mechanical units, after the hardware interface has been initialized, is not handled by the hardware interface and can lead to unexpected behavior.
  • A ROS node that uses the hardware interface, together with a ros_control controller manager, to run a control loop.
  • A ROS node for stopping ros_control controllers when EGM sessions ends:
    • Users can specify a list of controllers that are ok to keep running (e.g. passive state controllers).

Please note that this package is only recommended for advanced users.

Please see the egm_hardware_interface.launch file for how to start the node and available node parameters. Additionally, the ROS node, provided by the abb_rws_service_provider package, is required during initialization of the hardware interface.

Please see the config folder for configuration examples for a few different use cases.

Requirements

  • RobotWare version 6.07.01 or higher (less than 7.0).

Please see the underlying abb_libegm and abb_librws packages for more details.

Troubleshooting

The following table is non-exhaustive, but it should at least give some ideas for things to check.

Issue Check
Communication If the FlexPendant shows the No data from UdpUc device message it means that the robot sent out EGM UDP messages, but it did not receive any reply:
  • Verify that the correct remote IP-address, and port number, has been specified in the the robot's system configurations: RobotStudio > Controller tab > Configuration > Communication > Transmission Protocol (check the UDPUC instances).
  • Verify that no firewall is blocking UDP communication on the desired ports.
Utilization rate If the hardware interface prints messages about an EGM channel's utilization rate being above 100%, it means that the desired commands sent by the user are too aggressive and they should be reduced.
Motion (robot side settings) System configurations:
  • See RobotStudio > Controller tab > Configuration > Motion > External Motion Interface Data (the Filtering/Raw level can for example affect how well references are tracked).
Important EGM RAPID parameters:
  • The \MaxSpeedDeviation parameter can be used to trim acceleration/deceleration, and it also seems to limit the maximum allowed joint speed (ROS side velocity limits should be less than or equal to this this parameter).
  • Pure velocity control requires the \PosCorrGain parameter to be set to 0.
  • Make sure that the correct tooldata has be specified in the RAPID code with either \Tool or \TLoad (i.e. if modal payload mode is set to No in the system configurations).
  • If the RobotWare StateMachine Add-In is present, and if the ROS node provided by the abb_rws_service_provider package is used, then ROS services are exposed to get/set the EGM RAPID settings directly from the ROS side.
Please see the Application manual - Externally Guided Motion (document ID: 3HAC073319-001, revision: B) for a more detailed description of EGM settings and capabilities.
Motion (ROS side settings) The hardware interface registers PositionJointSoftLimitsInterface and VelocityJointSoftLimitsInterface interfaces, which users can, for example, configure with velocity limits for each joint (conservative limits are set per default).

Please see the joint_limits_interface package for more details about how joint limit configurations can be specified.

Acknowledgements

ROSIN Project

rosin_logo The core development has been made within the European Union's Horizon 2020 project: ROSIN - ROS-Industrial Quality-Assured Robot Software Components (see http://rosin-project.eu for more info).

eu_flag The ROSIN project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 732287.

The opinions expressed here reflects only the author's view and reflects in no way the European Commission's opinions. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the contained information.

Special Thanks

Special thanks to gavanderhoorn for guidance with open-source practices and conventions.