Arbench

Annotation for robotics bench. A FreeCAD workbench for annotating frames of interest, exporting these w.r.t. the part frame, and exporting part information.

Installation instructions

This workbench supports versions of FreeCAD>0.16.

Install FreeCAD
If you're not on Ubuntu follow the workbench installation instructions or you can do the following on Ubuntu.
Custom workbenches are located in .FreeCAD/Mod/ under your home directory cd ~/.FreeCAD/Mod/
Either
- Clone the repository there
- symlink the cloned repo in there (ln -s ./ARBench ~/.FreeCAD/ARBench)
Start the workbench by
1. Running FreeCAD
2. Open a STEP file
3. Open the ARBench workbench

Usage

Click a small feature e.g. a circle
Press the feature frame creator (cone with a magnifying glass on it icon)
Chose type of feature to create
Chose feature parameters if relevant and the offset of the frame from the feature.
Repeat 4 for each feature you want on each part
Click a part and press the export to json button (block->textfile icon)
Save json
Use the json with whatever you want. E.g. arbench_part_publisher

Freecad to Gazebo exporter

To generate SDF and URDF model from freecad assembly use python call:

freecad_exporter.export_gazebo_model(freecad_assembly_file, model_destination_folder, config)

Note: Only links and joints are generated in the SDF model. To use the model with ros, use the URDF model.

Config specification

{
    "name": "robot_name",
    "joints_limits": {"upper": 90, "lower": -90, "effort": 10, "velocity": 5},
    "transmission": {
        "type": "transmission_interface/SimpleTransmission",
        "hardware_interface": "hardware_interface/PositionJointInterface"
    },
    "joints_config": {
        "type": "position_controllers/JointGroupPositionController",
        "grouped": true
    },
    "joints_pid": {"p": 20.0, "i": 10.0, "d": 0.0, "i_clamp": 0.0},
    "root_link": "base_link",
    "ros_package": "humanoid_17dof_description",
    "sdf_only": false,
    "export": true
}

sdf_only: Export only SDF.

export: Export mesh files.

Future plans

Extend collada exporter to export materials from assemblies.
Create a FreeCAD workbench to interactively assign joints and export to gazebo.
Support any valid structures of assemblies.

2.6 KiB Raw Blame History