urdf_capsule_generator_wrapper

Wrapper of open-source code for generating collision capsules for a robot urdf model. See Credits section for the open-source code used.

Installation

This setup has been tested on an Ubuntu 24.04 machine with ros2 jazzy installed.

mkdir -p capsule_ws && cd capsule_ws
git clone --recurse-submodules -j8 git@github.com:IoannisDadiotis/urdf_capsule_generator_wrapper.git
cd urdf_capsule_generator_wrapper
./build_separately.sh

Docker deployment (recommended)

Build the docker image:

# Clone the repository
git clone --recurse-submodules -j8 git@github.com:IoannisDadiotis/urdf_capsule_generator_wrapper.git
cd urdf_capsule_generator_wrapper

# Build the Docker image
docker build -t urdf_capsule_env:latest .

Run the container:

# allow container to connect to X server
xhost +local:docker
# run the container
docker run -it --name capsules --rm \
    -e DISPLAY=$DISPLAY \
    -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix \
    urdf_capsule_env:latest

Notice that the name of the container is capsules.

Generate capsules for a URDF model

If everything is built and installed correctly you can run the capsule generation scripts:

cd urdf_capsule_generator_wrapper
./source_paths.sh
cd robot_capsule_generator/python
python3 robot_capsule_urdf your_model.urdf -o output_model.urdf
python3 robot_capsule_urdf_to_rviz output_model.urdf -o output_model_rviz.urdf

Visualize the result

To visualize the result you have to execute the following commands.

ros2 run robot_state_publisher robot_state_publisher --ros-args -p robot_description:="$(cat output_model_rviz.urdf)"

On two new terminals, open rviz with rviz2 and a gui for publishing joint states with:

ros2 run joint_state_publisher_gui joint_state_publisher_gui

With the following command you can open new terminals in the existing capsules container:

docker exec -it capsules bash

Remember to visualize a robot model using the ros2 param /robot_description and select an existing frame as Fixed frame. If everything has been executed correctly you will be able to see your robot with collision capsules. Remember to tick the Collision Enabled box in rviz.

Credits

This repository is wrapping open-source code from:

• robot_capsule_generator
• roboptim-capsule