Mobile Manipulator Robot with ROS and Gazebo Simulation

Overview

This project involves simulating a mobile manipulator robot in Gazebo using ROS Noetic. The robot is a differential drive base mounted with a 5-degree-of-freedom (5-DOF) manipulator. It is capable of navigating its environment autonomously by receiving waypoint commands and controlling its velocity through the cmd_vel topic.

Features

• Gazebo Simulation: The robot is simulated in Gazebo, providing a realistic environment for testing and development.
• ROS Noetic: Utilizing ROS Noetic, the leading robotics middleware, for communication, control, and simulation.
• Differential Drive Base: The robot's base is equipped with differential drive wheels, enabling it to move in any direction without changing its orientation.
• 5-DOF Manipulator: Mounted on the base is a 5-degree-of-freedom manipulator, providing the robot with the capability to manipulate objects in its environment.
• Waypoint Navigation: The robot receives waypoint commands and navigates to specified locations autonomously by reading velocity commands on the cmd_vel topic.

Getting Started

To get started with the mobile manipulator robot simulation, follow these steps:

1. Install ROS Noetic: Install ROS Noetic on your system by following the instructions provided on the ROS wiki.

2. Set Up ROS Workspace: Create and set up a ROS workspace for your project:

   mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src
   cd ~/catkin_ws/src
   catkin_init_workspace
   cd ~/catkin_ws
   catkin_make
   source devel/setup.bash

3. Clone Repository: Clone the mobile manipulator robot repository into your ROS workspace:

   cd ~/catkin_ws/src
   git clone [email protected]:rajeev-gupta-bashrc/MM_ROBOT.git

4. Install Dependencies: Install any dependencies required by the project using ROS package manager (rosdep) and/or system package manager:

   cd ~/catkin_ws
   rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y

5. Build Packages: Build the ROS packages in your workspace:

   catkin_make

6. Launch Simulation: Launch the Gazebo simulation of the mobile manipulator robot:

   roslaunch mobile_manipulator mobile_manipulator_gazebo.launch

7. Play with various scripts using the command below: For example:

   rosrun mobile_manipulator path_planner.py

Contributing

Contributions to the mobile manipulator robot project are welcome! If you have any ideas, bug fixes, or improvements, feel free to submit a pull request or open an issue on the project repository.