Is there a way to find from ROS2 driver if I am using HW or URSim

[jsubramo]

Hi,

I am using Ubuntu 20.04 with ROS2 Foxy and URSim 5.11.

I am using the following launch command ros2 launch ur_bringup ur_control.launch.py ur_type:=ur5e robot_ip:=127.0.0.1 to connect with URSim and able to establish connection.

1. Is there a way to find if I am using simulation(gazebo/URSim) or real hardware from the nodes available? depending on the answer pl lmk the solution. (Also not able to find any documentation for understanding the dashboard msgs)

2. Earlier there was /ur_hardware_interface node available to know this is ROS1, is it available for ROS2, how to use it?
   Note: I only see /io_and_status_controller and able to echo the output the robot_mode and robot_program_running. But the ros2 launched terminal does not show the status called Running or Stopped that was earlier available,

3. I am not able to see any getting started example for Gazebo, can you pl help me

I am stuck here for past few days and not able to proceed, pl. help me

Thank you

[fmauch]

Whether you use URSim or a real robot is not really distinguishable since URSim behaves exactly like a real robot. Concerning gazebo, you can have a look at https://github.com/UniversalRobots/Universal_Robots_ROS2_Gazebo_Simulation but that package is not finished / fully maintained at the moment.

[jsubramo]

Thanks for the reply!
my concern was more reg. not able to see the ur_hardware_interface topics being published,
can you give steps how do i fix this,

using ros2 launch ur_bringup ur_control.launch.py ur_type:=ur5e robot_ip:=127.0.0.1

thank you

[fmauch]

I'm not sure I do understand your question. When you run ros2 launch ur_robot_driver ur_control.launch.py ur_type:=ur5e robot_ip:=127.0.0.1 (You shouldn't be using ur_bringup anymore, as it will be gone in all distributions after humble. AND please don't use foxy anymore, it is not maintained anymore), you can see all topics using a regular ros2 topic list command (Note: I started with launch_rviz:=false in order to reduce the amount of topics):

/dynamic_joint_states
/force_torque_sensor_broadcaster/transition_event
/force_torque_sensor_broadcaster/wrench
/forward_position_controller/commands
/forward_position_controller/transition_event
/io_and_status_controller/io_states
/io_and_status_controller/robot_mode
/io_and_status_controller/robot_program_running
/io_and_status_controller/safety_mode
/io_and_status_controller/tool_data
/io_and_status_controller/transition_event
/joint_state_broadcaster/transition_event
/joint_states
/parameter_events
/robot_description
/rosout
/scaled_joint_trajectory_controller/controller_state
/scaled_joint_trajectory_controller/joint_trajectory
/scaled_joint_trajectory_controller/state
/scaled_joint_trajectory_controller/transition_event
/speed_scaling_state_broadcaster/speed_scaling
/speed_scaling_state_broadcaster/transition_event
/tf
/tf_static

If I under you are wondering why there aren't any topics published from the ur_hardware_interface node. First of all, no such node exists, if you have a look at the nodes being present:

/controller_manager
/controller_stopper
/dashboard_client
/force_torque_sensor_broadcaster
/forward_position_controller
/io_and_status_controller
/joint_state_broadcaster
/robot_state_publisher
/scaled_joint_trajectory_controller
/speed_scaling_state_broadcaster

All interaction on a topic level is being done by the respective controllers directly, which show up as separate nodes.

[jsubramo]

Thanks for the explanation,
I am aware of the depreciation, reason to still use foxy is I was not able to use the docker with UR Sim, facing difficulty in using URcaps in the docker, tried following the documentation, but seems very complicated for beginner.

I am developing an application and need to interact with the dashboard client to send and receive commands.

I am looking to use the following services that were available in ROS1.

example -
/ur_hardware_interface/dashboard/load_installation
/ur_hardware_interface/dashboard/load_program
/ur_hardware_interface/dashboard/pause
/ur_hardware_interface/dashboard/play
/ur_hardware_interface/dashboard/popup
/ur_hardware_interface/dashboard/power_off
/ur_hardware_interface/dashboard/power_on

can you pl. let know if these are available / deprecated or a work around to access them

thank you,

[fmauch]

First of all: Please have a look at our documentation.

Second: If you are looking for services, how about a ros2 service list?

$ ros2 service list
[...]
/dashboard_client/add_to_log
/dashboard_client/brake_release
/dashboard_client/clear_operational_mode
/dashboard_client/close_popup
/dashboard_client/close_safety_popup
/dashboard_client/connect
/dashboard_client/describe_parameters
/dashboard_client/get_loaded_program
/dashboard_client/get_parameter_types
/dashboard_client/get_parameters
/dashboard_client/get_robot_mode
/dashboard_client/get_safety_mode
/dashboard_client/list_parameters
/dashboard_client/load_installation
/dashboard_client/load_program
/dashboard_client/pause
/dashboard_client/play
/dashboard_client/popup
/dashboard_client/power_off
/dashboard_client/power_on
/dashboard_client/program_running
/dashboard_client/program_saved
/dashboard_client/program_state
/dashboard_client/quit
/dashboard_client/raw_request
/dashboard_client/restart_safety
/dashboard_client/set_parameters
/dashboard_client/set_parameters_atomically
/dashboard_client/shutdown
/dashboard_client/stop
/dashboard_client/unlock_protective_stop
[...]

[jsubramo]

Hi, sry for the delayed response, thankyou for the heads up!
(I was not able to find this doc for Foxy, so spent some time there. I will upgrade to Humble)
This is exactly what I am looking for, can you pl provide the detailed steps with launch commands to get this information,
That would complete my query,

[jsubramo]

I was able to get it working with ROS2 Humble in Ubuntu 22. I used the UR Sim from provided docker,
Thanks for the help.