JacoROS

Package Description

1. jaco_driver
   This ROS stack concerns about the jaco arm control. This stack has the following packages
   

• CSharpWrapper
  This is not a ROS package. This C# wrapper communicates with other dlls provided by Kinova. It is thought that it will be easier to write one dll which can communicates with all other dlls(provided by the kinova). Which in turn makes it easier for C++ wrapper. In order to communicate with jaco through C++, one needs to use this wrapper
• jaco
  This package starts and communicates with jaco arm. It will start the jaco node, which in turn update some functionalities
  1. jaco joint publisher - reads the joint angles from the jaco and publish it.
  2. jaco action controller - its uses ROS action lib to moves jaco in joint space or in cartesian space. It also uses action lib for opening or closing fingers.
  3. jaco - its a mono wrapper for communicating between C++ and C#Wrapper dll.
• jaco_description
  This package contains jaco arm description. i.e urdf file and also xacro file for simulation('gazebo')
• jaco_arm_kinematics
  This package contains kinematics plugin for jaco arm. It uses openrave for inverse kinematic and KDL for forward solution.
• jaco_arm_navigation
  This package does the motion planning for the jaco arm. It will take care of self-collision.
• jaco_smach Ros smach used to pick and place task for jaco arm and other simple stuff.

2. jaco_gazebo
   Its a ROS stack concerning the jaco simulation(gazebo)

• gripper_gazebo
  Its a action lib for opening and closing gripper in gazebo
  • jaco_gazebo_controller_configuration
    This package has the controller parameters for jaco arm and jaco gripper.

How to use these packages in Real Jaco arm

• roslaunch jaco start.launch
  This launch file intialise the jaco arm api. It will also start publishing the joint angle and starts the action lib server for moving the jaco.
• roslaunch jaco_arm_navigation jaco_arm_navigation.launch
  This will launch jaco arm navigation package. Kinematics, motion planning the trajectory generation are done here.
• rosrun jaco_arm_navigation move_jaco_joint_goal
  simple example for moving the jaco joint.

How to use these packages in Simulation

One of the main requirement while developing the simulation is to write programs which can be used in both real jaco and simulation jaco. The test code in jaco_arm_navigation package can also be used in Simulation.

• roslaunch jaco_description jaco_gazebo.launch
  This launch file will start the gazebo with empty world then it will load jaco urdf file. Then it will launch a trajectory controller for jaco arm and its gripper. Finally a controller manager will be launched, currently we are using pr2 controller manager.
• roslaunch jaco_arm_navigation jaco_gazebo_navigation.launch
  Here jaco_gazebo_navigation.launch is used instead of jaco_arm_navigation.launch, because of different action lib messages for controlling the arm.
• rosrun jaco_arm_navigation move_jaco_joint_goal
  simple example for moving the jaco joint.
• rosrun gripper_gazebo close_gripper / open_gripper
  simple example for closing or opening the jaco gripper.