| Note: This tutorial assumes that you have completed the previous tutorials: Arm Software Installation Instructions. |
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Start playing with your arm and MoveIt!
Description: A tutorial with examples of using your turtlebot_arm with MoveIt! framework.Tutorial Level: INTERMEDIATE
Though it is not mandatory, I highly recommend to calibrate your camera extrinsic parameters following this tutorial. You will notably improve the arm operation, particularly for pick and place.
Admittedly, this wise advice is useless by now, as the only demo we have so far don't use the camera at all! This should change in the following months.
Start MoveIt! on "simulation" mode
It's convenient to first try without moving the real arm, just a RViz-visualized "fake". Run in a terminal:
roslaunch turtlebot_arm_moveit_config turtlebot_arm_moveit.launch sim:=true --screen
The turtlebot_arm_moveit_config/turtlebot_arm_moveit.launch is a bit wonky, but the move_group action underlying it works fine.
Run the pick and place demo
Run now the pick and play demo in a different terminal:
rosrun turtlebot_arm_moveit_demos pick_and_place.py
You should see on RViz the fake arm moving to a straight-up pose, the pick an imaginary object over an imaginary table, and then placing it again. After that, the arm returns to a "resting" pose folded over it base.
Retry with the real arm
If all went right, it's time to try with the real arm. Repeat the process but this time call the non-fake turtlebot_arm_moveit.launch and start the arm controller:
roslaunch turtlebot_arm_moveit_config turtlebot_arm_moveit.launch sim:=false --screen roslaunch turtlebot_arm_bringup arm.launch --screen
Out of prudence, I would keep ready to quickly cut current to the arm... just in case it decides to try the physically impossible!
To date (August 2014) this demo is not working with MoveIt! Indigo deb packages, but it does with hydro source code, so this nasty situation should not last long. Take a look at this issue for changes.
