Dual arm docs

my_dual_robot_cell/doc/assemble_urdf.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,113 @@
+:github_url: https://github.com/UniversalRobots/Universal_Robots_ROS2_Tutorials/blob/main/my_dual_robot_cell/doc/assemble_urdf.rst
+
+Assembling the URDF
+===================
+
+The `ur_description <https://github.com/UniversalRobots/Universal_Robots_ROS2_Description>`_ package provides `macro files <https://github.com/UniversalRobots/Universal_Robots_ROS2_Description/blob/rolling/urdf/ur_macro.xacro>`_ to generate an instance of a Universal Robots arm.
+We'll use this to create a custom workcell with two robots in it, both a UR3e (called Alice) and a UR5e (called Bob). In this section we will only go into
+detail about the URDF / xacro files, not the complete package structure. Please see the
+`description package source code
+<https://github.com/UniversalRobots/Universal_Robots_ROS2_Tutorials/blob/main/my_robot_cell/my_robot_cell_description>`_ for all other files assembling the description package.
+
+Workcell description
+--------------------
+
+.. literalinclude:: ../my_dual_robot_cell_description/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell.urdf.xacro
+    :language: xml
+    :linenos:
+    :caption: my_robot_cell_description/urdf/my_robot_cell.urdf.xacro
+
+Let's break it down:
+
+First, we'll have to **include** the macro to generate our custom workcell:
+
+.. literalinclude:: ../my_dual_robot_cell_description/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell.urdf.xacro
+    :language: xml
+    :start-at:   <xacro:include filename="$(find my_dual_robot_cell_description)/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell_macro.xacro"/>
+    :end-at:   <xacro:include filename="$(find my_dual_robot_cell_description)/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell_macro.xacro"/>
+    :caption: my_dual_robot_cell_description/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell.urdf.xacro
+
+This line only loads the macro for generating the robot workcell.
+
+We will need to provide some parameters to our workcell in order to parametrize the arms. Therefore,
+we need to declare certain arguments that must be passed to the macro.
+
+.. literalinclude:: ../my_dual_robot_cell_description/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell.urdf.xacro
+    :language: xml
+    :start-at:   <xacro:arg name="alice_ur_type" default="ur3e"/>
+    :end-at:      <xacro:arg name="bob_visual_parameters_file" default="$(find ur_description)/config/$(arg bob_ur_type)/visual_parameters.yaml"/>
+    :caption: my_dual_robot_cell_description/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell.urdf.xacro
+
+The workspace macro contains all items within the workcell including the robot arm. If you are not
+experienced in writing URDFs, you may want to refer to this  `tutorial
+<https://docs.ros.org/en/rolling/Tutorials/Intermediate/URDF/URDF-Main.html>`_. The macro's content
+is generated using
+
+.. literalinclude:: ../my_dual_robot_cell_description/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell.urdf.xacro
+    :language: xml
+    :start-at:     <link name="world"/>
+    :end-at:       </xacro:my_dual_robot_cell>
+    :caption: my_dual_robot_cell_description/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell.urdf.xacro
+
+Here, a ``world`` link is created, and the robot workcell is created relative to the ``world`` link.
+
+Workcell macro
+--------------
+
+The workcell macro is defined in the following manner:
+
+.. literalinclude:: ../my_dual_robot_cell_description/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell_macro.xacro
+    :language: xml
+    :linenos:
+    :caption: my_dual_robot_cell_description/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell_macro.xacro
+
+This macro provides an example of what a custom workcell could resemble. Your workspace will likely
+vary from this one. Please feel free to modify this portion of the URDF to match your own setup. In
+this instance, our workspace comprises a table in front of a wall, featuring a monitor, and the
+two robot arms mounted on top.
+
+Ensure that your custom workcell includes the parent link, which must be passed to the **ur_robot**
+macro. In this example, we chose to create two links, one named **alice_robot_mount** and one named **bob_robot_mount**.
+
+.. literalinclude:: ../my_dual_robot_cell_description/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell_macro.xacro
+    :language: xml
+    :start-at: <link name="alice_robot_mount"/>
+    :end-before: <!--Creates the 1st Robot-->
+    :linenos:
+    :caption: my_dual_robot_cell_description/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell_macro.xacro
+
+After that we are finally able to actually **create the robot arms** by calling the macro.
+
+.. literalinclude:: ../my_dual_robot_cell_description/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell_macro.xacro
+    :language: xml
+    :start-at:   <!--Creates the 1st Robot-->
+    :end-before:   </xacro:macro>
+    :linenos:
+    :caption: my_dual_robot_cell_description/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell_macro.xacro
+
+Note that the **origin** argument is transmitted in a different manner than the other arguments.
+
+Before we can test our code, it's essential to build and source our Colcon workspace:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+    #cd to your colcon workspace root
+    cd ~/colcon_ws
+
+    #source and build your workspace
+    colcon build
+    source install/setup.bash
+
+
+We can view our custom workspace by running:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+    #launch rviz
+    ros2 launch my_dual_robot_cell_description view_robot.launch.py
+
+Use the sliders of the ``joint_state_puplisher_gui`` to move the virtual robots around.
+It should look something like this:
+
+.. image:: figures/rviz.png
+    :alt: RViz window showing the custom workspace

my_dual_robot_cell/doc/conf.py

@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+project = "ur_dual_arm_tutorial"
+copyright = "2025, Universal Robots A/S"
+author = "Jacob Larsen"
+
+# The short X.Y version
+version = ""
+# The full version, including alpha/beta/rc tags
+release = ""
+
+# -- General configuration ---------------------------------------------------
+
+# If your documentation needs a minimal Sphinx version, state it here.
+#
+# needs_sphinx = '1.0'
+
+# Add any Sphinx extension module names here, as strings. They can be
+# extensions coming with Sphinx (named 'sphinx.ext.*') or your custom
+# ones.
+extensions = []
+
+# Add any paths that contain templates here, relative to this directory.
+templates_path = ["_templates"]
+
+# The suffix(es) of source filenames.
+# You can specify multiple suffix as a list of string:
+#
+source_suffix = [".rst"]
+
+# The master toctree document.
+master_doc = "index"
+
+numfig = True
+
+# The language for content autogenerated by Sphinx. Refer to documentation
+# for a list of supported languages.
+#
+# This is also used if you do content translation via gettext catalogs.
+# Usually you set "language" from the command line for these cases.
+language = "en"
+
+# List of patterns, relative to source directory, that match files and
+# directories to ignore when looking for source files.
+# This pattern also affects html_static_path and html_extra_path.
+exclude_patterns = ["_build", "Thumbs.db", ".DS_Store", "migration/*.rst"]
+
+# The name of the Pygments (syntax highlighting) style to use.
+pygments_style = None
+
+
+# -- Options for HTML output -------------------------------------------------
+
+# The theme to use for HTML and HTML Help pages.  See the documentation for
+# a list of builtin themes.
+#
+html_theme = "alabaster"
+
+# Theme options are theme-specific and customize the look and feel of a theme
+# further.  For a list of options available for each theme, see the
+# documentation.
+#
+# html_theme_options = {}
+
+# Add any paths that contain custom static files (such as style sheets) here,
+# relative to this directory. They are copied after the builtin static files,
+# so a file named "default.css" will overwrite the builtin "default.css".
+# html_static_path = ["_static"]
+
+# Custom sidebar templates, must be a dictionary that maps document names
+# to template names.
+#
+# The default sidebars (for documents that don't match any pattern) are
+# defined by theme itself.  Builtin themes are using these templates by
+# default: ``['localtoc.html', 'relations.html', 'sourcelink.html',
+# 'searchbox.html']``.
+#
+# html_sidebars = {}
+
+
+# -- Options for HTMLHelp output ---------------------------------------------
+
+# Output file base name for HTML help builder.
+htmlhelp_basename = "ur_dual_arm_tutorial_doc"

my_dual_robot_cell/doc/index.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+:github_url: https://github.com/UniversalRobots/Universal_Robots_ROS2_Tutorials/blob/main/my_dual_robot_cell/doc/index.rst
+
+.. _dual_arm_tutorial:
+
+===================
+Dual robot arm cell
+===================
+
+Example about integrating two UR arms into a custom workspace. We will build a custom workcell
+description containing two robot arms, start the driver and create a MoveIt config to enable trajectory planning with MoveIt.
+
+Please see the `package source code
+<https://github.com/UniversalRobots/Universal_Robots_ROS2_Tutorials/tree/main/my_robot_cell>`_ for
+all files relevant for this example.
+
+.. toctree::
+   :maxdepth: 4
+   :caption: Contents:
+
+   assemble_urdf
+   start_ur_driver
+
+MoveIt! Configuration
+---------------------
+For inspiration on how to configure MoveIt! 2 using the setup assistant, please see the `single arm robot cell tutorial
+<https://docs.universal-robots.com/Universal_Robots_ROS_Documentation/doc/ur_tutorials/my_robot_cell/doc/build_moveit_config.html>`_

my_dual_robot_cell/doc/start_ur_driver.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,135 @@
+:github_url: https://github.com/UniversalRobots/Universal_Robots_ROS2_Tutorials/blob/main/my_dual_robot_cell/doc/start_ur_driver.rst
+
+=========================
+Start the ur_robot_driver
+=========================
+
+In the last chapter we created a custom scene description containing our two robots. In order to make
+that description usable to ``ros2_control`` and hence the ``ur_robot_driver``, we need to add
+control information. We will also add a custom launchfile to start up our demonstrator.
+
+We will generate a new package called `my_dual_robot_cell_control <https://github.com/UniversalRobots/Universal_Robots_ROS2_Tutorials/tree/main/my_dual_robot_cell/my_dual_robot_cell_control>`_ for that purpose.
+
+Create a description with ros2_control tag
+------------------------------------------
+
+The first step is to create a description containing the control instructions:
+
+.. literalinclude:: ../my_dual_robot_cell_control/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell_controlled.urdf.xacro
+    :language: xml
+    :linenos:
+    :caption: my_dual_robot_cell_control/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell_controlled.urdf.xacro
+
+This URDF is very similar to the one we have already assembled. We simply need to include the ros2_control macro,
+
+.. literalinclude:: ../my_dual_robot_cell_control/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell_controlled.urdf.xacro
+    :language: xml
+    :start-at:   <xacro:include filename="$(find ur_robot_driver)/urdf/ur.ros2_control.xacro" />
+    :end-at:   <xacro:include filename="$(find ur_robot_driver)/urdf/ur.ros2_control.xacro" />
+    :caption: my_dual_robot_cell_control/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell_controlled.urdf.xacro
+
+define the necessary arguments that need to be passed to the macro,
+
+.. literalinclude:: ../my_dual_robot_cell_control/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell_controlled.urdf.xacro
+    :language: xml
+    :start-at: <xacro:arg name="alice_use_mock_hardware" default="false" />
+    :end-at: <xacro:arg name="ur_input_recipe_filename" default="$(find ur_robot_driver)/resources/rtde_input_recipe.txt" />
+    :caption: my_dual_robot_cell_control/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell_controlled.urdf.xacro
+
+and then call the macro by providing all the specified arguments.
+
+.. literalinclude:: ../my_dual_robot_cell_control/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell_controlled.urdf.xacro
+    :language: xml
+    :start-at:    <xacro:ur_ros2_control
+    :end-before:   </robot>
+    :caption: my_robot_cell_control/urdf/my_robot_cell_controlled.urdf.xacro
+
+Extract the calibration
+-----------------------
+
+One very important step is to extract each robot's specific calibration and save it to our
+workcell's startup package. For details, please refer to `our documentation on extracting the calibration information <https://docs.ros.org/en/ros2_packages/rolling/api/ur_robot_driver/installation/robot_setup.html#extract-calibration-information>`_.
+For now, we just copy the default ones for the UR3e and UR5e.
+
+.. code-block::
+
+   cp $(ros2 pkg prefix ur_description)/share/ur_description/config/ur3e/default_kinematics.yaml \
+     my_dual_robot_cell_control/config/alice_calibration.yaml
+
+    cp $(ros2 pkg prefix ur_description)/share/ur_description/config/ur5e/default_kinematics.yaml \
+     my_dual_robot_cell_control/config/bob_calibration.yaml
+
+
+Create robot_state_publisher launchfile
+---------------------------------------
+
+To use the custom controlled description, we need to generate a launchfile loading that description
+(Since it contains less / potentially different) arguments than the "default" one. In that
+launchfile we need to start a ``robot_state_publisher`` (RSP) node that will get the description as a
+parameter and redistribute it via the ``robot_description`` topic:
+
+.. literalinclude:: ../my_dual_robot_cell_control/launch/rsp.launch.py
+    :language: py
+    :start-at: from launch import LaunchDescription
+    :linenos:
+    :caption: my_dual_robot_cell_control/launch/rsp.launch.py
+
+Before we can start our workcell we need to create a launchfile that will launch the two robot descriptions correctly.
+
+Create start_robot launchfile
+-----------------------------
+
+Here we create a launch file which will launch the driver with the correct description and robot state publisher, as well as start all of the controllers necessary to use the two robots.
+
+.. literalinclude:: ../my_dual_robot_cell_control/launch/start_robots.launch.py
+    :language: py
+    :linenos:
+    :caption: my_dual_robot_cell_control/launch/start_robots.launch.py
+
+With that we can start the robot using
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   ros2 launch my_dual_robot_cell_control start_robots.launch.py alice_use_mock_hardware:=true bob_use_mock_hardware:=true
+
+Testing everything
+------------------
+
+Before we can test our code, it's essential to build and source our Colcon workspace:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+    #cd to your colcon workspace root, e.g.
+    cd ~/colcon_ws
+
+    #source and build your workspace
+    colcon build
+    source install/setup.bash
+
+We can start the system in a mocked simulation
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+    #start the driver with mocked hardware
+    ros2 launch my_dual_robot_cell_control start_robots.launch.py alice_use_mock_hardware:=true bob_use_mock_hardware:=true
+
+Or to use it with a real robot:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+    #start the driver with real hardware (or the docker simulator included in this example)
+    ros2 launch my_dual_robot_cell_control start_robots.launch.py
+
+.. note::
+   We extracted the calibration information from the robot and saved it in the
+   ``my_robot_cell_control`` package. If you have a different robot, you need to extract the
+   calibration information from that, and pass that to the launch file. Changing the ``ur_type``
+   parameter only will lead to a wrong model, as it will still be using the example kinematics from
+   a UR3e and UR5e. To use a UR10e and UR20, for example, you can do
+
+   .. code-block:: bash
+
+      ros2 launch my_dual_robot_cell_control start_robots.launch.py bob_ur_type:=ur10e bob_use_mock_hardware:=true \
+        bob_kinematics_parameters_file:=$(ros2 pkg prefix ur_description)/share/ur_description/config/ur10e/default_kinematics.yaml \
+        alice_ur_type:=ur20 alice_use_mock_hardware:=true \
+        alice_kinematics_parameters_file:=$(ros2 pkg prefix ur_description)/share/ur_description/config/ur20/default_kinematics.yaml

my_dual_robot_cell/my_dual_robot_cell_control/launch/rsp.launch.py

@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ def generate_launch_description():
                 "ur20",
                 "ur30",
             ],
-            default_value="ur3e",
+            default_value="ur5e",
         )
     )
     declared_arguments.append(

my_dual_robot_cell/my_dual_robot_cell_description/launch/view_robot.launch.py

@@ -19,10 +19,10 @@ def generate_launch_description():
                 description_file,
                 " ",
                 "alice_ur_type:=",
-                "ur3",
+                "ur3e",
                 " ",
                 "bob_ur_type:=",
-                "ur3",
+                "ur5e",
             ]
         ),
         value_type=str,

my_dual_robot_cell/my_dual_robot_cell_description/urdf/my_dual_robot_cell_macro.xacro

@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@
     <joint name="base_to_alice_robot_mount" type="fixed">
       <parent link="table"/>
       <child link="alice_robot_mount"/>
-      <origin xyz="0.5 0.3 0" rpy="0 0 ${pi}" />
+      <origin xyz="0.2 0.3 0" rpy="0 0 ${pi}" />
     </joint>
 
     <link name="bob_robot_mount"/>