RoboShield

This repository serves as the simulation environment of the RoboShield project. The whole RoboShield project are with three parts: Safety, Security and Privacy, and this repository focuses on the Safety part.

The aim of the RoboShield project is therefore to enable manufacturers, system integrators and end-users of industrial automation technologies to adapt to rapidly changing market conditions while ensuring the safety of the production facility. For more specific information, please refer to the website.

Setup

The simulation environment is a remapping of the real world setup, as shown in Picture blow, which contains three core components:

• Robot Arm: A UR10e lightweight robot is used as the robot which is specially designed for collaborative operation.
• Laser Scanner: Environmental monitoring is carried out with a Sick MicroScan 3 pro laser scanner. The monitoring area of the scanner is divided into two areas. In the first area (between red line and yellow line in above picture) the robot speed is reduced, in the second area (between red line and the table above) the robot movement is stopped.
• Gripper: Used for bin-picking work task.

Remapping to the Gazebo Simulation Environment

The simulation setup contained in this repository remaps the real world to the Gazebo environment, with all necessary components included, e.g. Laser Scanner, Robot Arm. The remapping results could be shown as Picture blow.

This repository offers two types of visualization:

• Gazebo. In the Gazebo environment, the robotics' motion is simulated or can display the robot's motion in the real-world if the connection to the robot hardware is established. At the same time, Laser Scanner could also be simulated or just be the visualization of the scanner result.

• Rviz. When Gazebo runs, the rviz offers another option to visualize the detection result of the laser scanner. As shown in the picture, the red dots represents for the detections of the object, which is inside the laser scanner's range. At the same time, the bright red curve indicates that the object was inside the red area.

How to use

How to install

mkdir -p  ~/catkin_ws/src
cd ~/catkin_ws/src
git clone this_repo.git
cd ..
catkin build

Remember to add Universal_Robot_Package alongside the source file:

git clone git@github.com:ros-industrial/universal_robot.git

Every time before you run the ros package, remember to source the bash

source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash

Or you could just add it to your .bashrc file.

For Gazebo model staff, please remember to copy the models in src/robo_shield_pkg/modelsto the root Gazebo folder.

How to run

Simulated Environment (without connection to the hardware)

• if you would like to run the simulated Gazebo environment and the corresponding RVIZ:

roslaunch robo_shield_pkg robo_shield_demonstrator_offline.launch

• If you would like to add some dynamic model (like human) into the gazebo:

roslaunch robo_shield_pkg human.launch

and then, you could see one human model was generated in the Gazebo environment, as shown in the picture blow:

Pure Visualization (WIth Connection to the hardware)

Before starting the program, please check and modify the sensor ip in the /sick_safetyscanners/launch/sick_safetyscanners.launch and change the host-ip (where do you start the program), which ensures you to have the connection with the laser:

  <arg name="sensor_ip" default="141.3.80.xxx" />
  <arg name="host_ip" default="141.3.81.xxx" />

You could use

ping 141.3.80.xxx

to check whether the connection with the laser is established. For the connection with the robot hardware, please contact Xi.

After all connections are established, you can run,

roslaunch robo_shield_pkg robo_shield_demonstrator.launch

If you run

rqt_image_view

You could get something like the picture blow, the color indicates the laser scanner's output.

Main folder & files instruction

robo_shield_pkg Folder

The main ros folder, where the Gazebo simulation environment and RVIZ staff are implemented. It also contains the table model that is needed in Gazebo simulation.

sick_safetyscanners Folder

This package is old version from SICK GitHub, but would be more stable than the newest version. It is needed when the connection between PC and SICK hardware is to establish. Please modify the IP Address in the launch file to make the sensor able to communicate with the host PC. Some modifications based on use-case could be done.

universal_robot Folder

Necessary files to control and visualize the UR robotics' motion.

laser_scanner Folder

This ROS package folder contains the laser signal processing, which based on the current raw laser detection results to give the judgement of the working situation. This is used in the early stage, mainly used for the simulated laser, not used later any more.