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Adding constrained_ik to MoveIt kinematics

In this tutorial we will learn to use the constrained_ik IK solver in MoveIt

Link IK Solver to Robot Moveit Package

• Create a catkin workspace (http://wiki.ros.org/catkin/Tutorials/create_a_workspace)

• Add a symlink to both the robot moveit package and industrial_moveit package

  cd <path_to_catkin_ws>/src
  ln -s <path_to_robot_moveit_package> <name_of_robot_moveit_package>
  ln -s <path_to_industrial_moveit_package> industrial_moveit

• Build the workspace

  catkin_make 

• IMPORTANT: source the catkin workspace first, in EVERY terminal

  source devel/setup.bash 

Add IK Solver to MoveIt Config File

• Locate the kinematics.yaml file in your <robot>_moveit_config/config directory

• Edit the kinematics_solver definition to reference the constrained_ik solver

  kinematics_solver: constrained_ik/ConstrainedIKPlugin 

Run Your Planner

• Run planner for robot. For example:

  roslaunch <robot>_moveit_config demo.launch 

Explicit Example Code

(I wish every tutorial had this for clarity)
Assumtions:

• ROS-Industrial repository abb is checked out to ~/ros/abb

• ROS-Industrial repository industrial_moveit is checked out to ~/ros/industrial_moveit

cd ~/ros
mkdir -p catkin_ws/src
cd catkin_ws
catkin_make
cd src
ln -s ~/ros/abb/ abb
ln -s ~/ros/industrial_moveit/ industrial_moveit
cd ~/ros/catkin_ws
catkin_make
source devel/setup.bash
roscd irb_2400_moveit_config/config
gedit kinematics.yaml

Edit the kinematics_solver line to read kinematics_solver: constrained_ik/ConstrainedIKPlugin. The whole file should look like this:

manipulator:
  kinematics_solver: constrained_ik/ConstrainedIKPlugin
  kinematics_solver_search_resolution: 0.005
  kinematics_solver_timeout: 0.05
  kinematics_solver_attempts: 3

Run the demo code to test the kinematics

roslaunch irb_2400_moveit_config demo.launch