[WIP] robots-plugins

A collection of plugins for Gazebo to experiment with perception and manipulation tasks.

Dependencies

• RobotsIO
• SuperimposeMesh

  The specific fork github.com/xenvre/superimpose-mesh-lib/tree/impl/fastrendering is required at the moment

• YARP

Installation

git clone https://github.com/xenvre/robots-plugins.git
cd robots-plugins
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=<installation_path> ../
make install

then make sure that GAZEBO_PLUGIN_PATH contains <installation_path>/lib.

Available plugins (more coming soon)

SegmentationCamera (World plugin)

Given a depth camera within the world and the model of an object of interest, it produces the associated segmentation mask. At the moment, the output is available via aYARP port whose content is of type yarp::sig::ImageOf<PixelMono>.

Example of usage:

<plugin name="segmentation_camera" filename="librobots-plugins-segmentation-camera.so">
    <cameraSensorName>name of the depth sensor in the world </cameraSensorName>
    <cameraSensorFocal>focal length of the camera in pixels</cameraSensorFocal>
    <cameraModelName>name of the model containing the camera</cameraModelName>
    <cameraLinkName>name of the link associated to the camera</cameraLinkName>
    <objectModelName>name of the model containing the object of interest</objectModelName>
    <objectMeshPath>path to the mesh used for the visual of the object</objectMeshPath>
 </plugin>

(the number of parameters will be reduced in following releases, since most of them should be available using SDF APIs)

• it is assumed that the pose of the object is that of the canonical link of the model objectModelName
• the output port name is hardcoded to /<objectModelName>/segmentation:o
• only one instance of a given model per time is supported at the moment

ModelMover (Model plugin)

It allows moving a model within the world. At the moment, the input is available via a YARP port whose content has to be of type yarp::sig::Vector. The vector should contain a x y z axis_x axis_y axis_z angle parametrization of the pose of the model.

Example of usage:

<plugin name="model_mover filename="librobots-plugins-model-mover.so"></plugin>

• the pose is associated to the canonical link of the model
• the input port is hardcoded to /<objectModelName/model-mover/pose:i

In order to change the pose of the object over time without the effect of the gravity, it is required to disable the dynamic engine for that model using

<model name="model_name">
(...)

    <static>true</static>
    
(...)
</model>

It is also possible to add this option outside the SDF model at the moment of its inclusion in the world, i.e.

<world>
(...) 

    <include>
        <uri>model://path/to/model</uri>              
        <static>true</static>
    </include>
        
(...)
</world>