Panda Programming Guide
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Panda Programming Guide
Ahmad AlAttar
March 12, 2019
Table of Content
1 Introduction 3
2 Installation Guide 3
2.1 WorkspaceSetup........................... 3
2.2 Installation of libfranka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3 Installation of franka ros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.4 Installation of panda moveIt config . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3 Turn On/Off Panda 5
3.1 TurnOnPanda............................ 5
3.2 TurnOffPanda............................ 5
4 Panda Gripper Control 6
4.1 LaunchGripperNode ........................ 6
4.2 Gripper Action Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.2.1 Gripper Homing Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.2.2 Gripper Move Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.2.3 Gripper Stop Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.3 Gripper Control using MoveIt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.3.1 LaunchMoveIt ........................ 8
4.3.2 LaunchRViz ......................... 8
4.3.3 Setup ............................. 8
4.3.4 GripperControl ....................... 9
5 Franka Control 10
5.1 LaunchNodes............................. 10
5.1.1 Launch Control Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.1.2 LaunchMoveIt ........................ 10
5.1.3 LaunchRViz ......................... 10
5.2 Panda Control using MoveIt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5.2.1 Setup ............................. 11
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5.2.2 Basic Information Print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.2.3 SimpleMove ......................... 12
5.2.4 Planning to Pose Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
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1 Introduction
Franka Emika’s Panda robot is a 7 DOF manipulator arm, shown below. The
Panda Programming Guide will help you install the required packages, turn
On/Off the robot, and how to program it using Python.
Figure 1: Franka Emika’s Panda robot
2 Installation Guide
If a workspace exists with libfranka, franka ros, and panda moveit config in-
stalled, then skip the Installation Guide.
2.1 Workspace Setup
In order to create ROS packages later on, we first need a catkin workspace.
Follow these steps:
1. Go to your home directory:
terminal: cd
2. Create a directory called Franka ws. This will be your workspace:
terminal: mkdir Franka ws
3. Go inside the workspace:
terminal: cd Franka ws
4. Create a folder called src:
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terminal: mkdir src
5. Build your workspace:
terminal: catkin make
2.2 Installation of libfranka
The library libfranka is the C++ implementation of the client side of the Franka
Control Interface (FCI). Follow these steps to install libfranka:
1. Go into the src folder of your workspace:
terminal: cd Franka ws/src
2. Execute this command to install required dependencies:
terminal: sudo apt install build-essential cmake git libpoco-dev
libeigen3-dev
3. Clone libfranka with this command:
terminal: git clone –recursive https://github.com/frankaemika/libfranka
4. Go back to the root of your workspace:
terminal: cd ..
5. Build your workspace:
terminal: catkin make
2.3 Installation of franka ros
The franka ros metapackage integrates libfranka into ROS. Follow these steps
to install libfranka:
1. Go into the src folder of your workspace:
terminal: cd Franka ws/src
2. Clone libfranka with this command:
terminal: git clone –recursive
https://github.com/frankaemika/franka ros
3. Go back to the root of your workspace:
terminal: cd ..
4. Build your workspace:
terminal: catkin make
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2.4 Installation of panda moveIt config
The panda moveIt config enabled the use of MoveIt to do motion planning for
the Panda robot. Follow these steps to install panda moveIt config:
1. Go into the src folder of your workspace:
terminal: cd Franka ws/src
2. Clone panda moveIt config with this command:
terminal: git clone -b kinetic-devel
https://github.com/ros-planning/panda moveit config.git
3. Go back to the root of your workspace:
terminal: cd ..
4. Build your workspace:
terminal: catkin make
3 Turn On/Off Panda
This section details how to turn On/Off the Panda robot.
3.1 Turn On Panda
Before programming, it is important to have the Panda robot in the Ready
mode. Follow these steps to do so:
1. Connect all the wires needed.
2. Turn on the controller (you will see a blinking yellow light).
3. Open a browser.
4. Go to 192.168.0.88 using the browser.
5. Unlock the joint brakes (when done, you will see white or purple light).
6. If not already, set the E-Stop to Ready mode (you will see blue light).
3.2 Turn Off Panda
After you are done, make sure to switch off the Panda following these steps.
DO NOT DIRECTLY SWITCH OFF THE CONTROLLER.
1. In the web interface click Shut down.
2. Wait for shutdown to complete (when done, panda lights will switch off).
3. Switch off the controller.
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4 Panda Gripper Control
This section shows how to control the Panda robot gripper using action servers
and MoveIt.
4.1 Launch Gripper Node
To be able to control the gripper, we launch the franka gripper node (NOT
NEEDED IF franka control IS ALREADY LAUNCHED). Follow these
steps:
1. Go to the workspace:
terminal 1: cd Franka ws
2. Launch the franka gripper node in a terminal:
terminal 1: roslaunch franka gripper franka gripper.launch
robot ip:=192.168.0.88
3. In another terminal, you can check that the node was launched:
terminal 2: rosnode list
4.2 Gripper Action Servers
After launching the franka gripper node, these action serves will be available to
you:
1. MoveAction(width, speed)
2. GraspAction(width, epsilon inner, epsilon outer, speed, force)
3. HomingAction()
4. StopAction()
All of the action servers can be used in Python. To send commands to the
action servers, we need action clients.
4.2.1 Gripper Homing Action
The following lines of code show how to create a simple action client for the
HomingAction action server:
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import rospy
import actionlib
from franka_gripper.msg import HomingAction, HomingGoal
if __name__ == '__main__':
rospy.init_node('Franka_gripper_homing_action')
client =actionlib.SimpleActionClient('/franka_gripper/homing', HomingAction)
client.wait_for_server()
goal =HomingGoal()
client.send_goal(goal)
client.wait_for_result(rospy.Duration.from_sec(5.0))
This action server homes the gripper and updates the maximum width given
the mounted fingers.
4.2.2 Gripper Move Action
The following lines of code show how to create a simple action client for the
MoveAction action server:
import rospy
import actionlib
from franka_gripper.msg import MoveGoal, MoveAction
if __name__ == '__main__':
rospy.init_node('Franka_gripper_move_action')
client =actionlib.SimpleActionClient('/franka_gripper/move', MoveAction)
client.wait_for_server()
goal =MoveGoal(width = 0.08, speed = 0.08)
client.send_goal(goal)
client.wait_for_result(rospy.Duration.from_sec(5.0))
This action server moves to a target width with the defined speed.
4.2.3 Gripper Stop Action
The following lines of code show how to create a simple action client for the
StopAction action server:
import rospy
import actionlib
from franka_gripper.msg import StopAction, StopGoal
if __name__ == '__main__':
rospy.init_node('Franka_gripper_stop_action')
client =actionlib.SimpleActionClient('/franka_gripper/stop', StopAction)
client.wait_for_server()
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action =StopGoal()
client.send_goal(action)
client.wait_for_result(rospy.Duration.from_sec(5.0))
This action server aborts a running action. This can be used to stop applying
forces after grasping.
4.3 Gripper Control using MoveIt
MAKE SURE EITHER franka control NODE OR franka gripper NODE
IS LAUCNHED. Next we will need to launch MoveIt and RViz (RViz is op-
tional).
4.3.1 Launch MoveIt
Follow these steps to launch MoveIt:
1. Go to the workspace:
terminal 2: cd Franka ws
2. Launch the MoveIt in a terminal:
terminal 2: roslaunch panda moveit config panda moveit.launch
controller:=position
4.3.2 Launch RViz
RViz is used for visualization. Follow these steps to launch RViz (optional):
1. Go to the workspace:
terminal 3: cd Franka ws
2. Launch the MoveIt in a terminal:
terminal 3: roslaunch panda moveit config moveit rviz.launch
4.3.3 Setup
Follow these setup steps (in a new Python file):
1. Import the following libraries:
import sys
import rospy
import moveit_commander
import moveit_msgs.msg
import geometry_msgs.msg
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2. Initialize moveit commander and rospy:
moveit_commander.roscpp_initialize(sys.argv)
rospy.init_node('move_group_python_interface', anonymous=True)
3. Instantiate a RobotCommander object which is the outer-level interface
to the robot:
robot =moveit_commander.RobotCommander()
4. Instantiate a PlanningSceneInterface object which is an interface to the
world surrounding the robot:
scene =moveit_commander.PlanningSceneInterface()
5. Instantiate a MoveGroupCommander object which is an interface to one
group of joints:
group_name ="hand"
group =moveit_commander.MoveGroupCommander(group_name)
6. Create a DisplayTrajectory publisher which is used to publish trajectories
for RViz to visualize:
display_trajectory_publisher =
rospy.Publisher('/move_group/display_planned_path',
moveit_msgs.msg.DisplayTrajectory, queue_size=20)
4.3.4 Gripper Control
The following lines of code uses MoveIt to open the gripper:
joint_goal =group.get_current_joint_values()
joint_goal[0]= 0.03
joint_goal[1]= 0.03
group.go(joint_goal, wait=True)
group.stop()
The following lines of code uses MoveIt to close the gripper:
joint_goal =group.get_current_joint_values()
joint_goal[0]= 0.00
joint_goal[1]= 0.00
group.go(joint_goal, wait=True)
group.stop()
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5 Franka Control
In this section, we will control the Panda arm using MoveIt in Python. It is
important to first launch the required files: franka control, MoveIt, and RViz
(RViz is optional).
5.1 Launch Nodes
5.1.1 Launch Control Node
The franka control node exposes ROS services for controlling the Panda robot.
Follow these steps to launch the franka control node:
1. Go to the workspace:
terminal 1: cd Franka ws
2. Launch the franka control node in a terminal:
terminal 1: roslaunch franka control franka control.launch
robot ip:=192.168.0.88 load gripper:=true
3. In another terminal, you can check that the node was launched:
terminal 2: rosnode list
5.1.2 Launch MoveIt
Follow these steps to launch MoveIt:
1. Go to the workspace:
terminal 2: cd Franka ws
2. Launch the MoveIt in a terminal:
terminal 2: roslaunch panda moveit config panda moveit.launch
controller:=position
5.1.3 Launch RViz
RViz is used for visualization. Follow these steps to launch RViz (optional):
1. Go to the workspace:
terminal 3: cd Franka ws
2. Launch the MoveIt in a terminal:
terminal 3: roslaunch panda moveit config moveit rviz.launch
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5.2 Panda Control using MoveIt
This is where the robot actually move! MAKE SURE YOU LAUCNHED
franka control, MoveIt, AND RViz (optional). Run your code in terminal
4.
5.2.1 Setup
Follow these setup steps (in a new Python file):
1. Import the following libraries:
import sys
import rospy
import moveit_commander
import moveit_msgs.msg
import geometry_msgs.msg
from math import pi
2. Initialize moveit commander and rospy:
moveit_commander.roscpp_initialize(sys.argv)
rospy.init_node('move_group_python_interface', anonymous=True)
3. Instantiate a RobotCommander object which is the outer-level interface
to the robot:
robot =moveit_commander.RobotCommander()
4. Instantiate a PlanningSceneInterface object which is an interface to the
world surrounding the robot:
scene =moveit_commander.PlanningSceneInterface()
5. Instantiate a MoveGroupCommander object which is an interface to one
group of joints:
group_name ="panda_arm"
group =moveit_commander.MoveGroupCommander(group_name)
6. Create a DisplayTrajectory publisher which is used to publish trajectories
for RViz to visualize:
display_trajectory_publisher =
rospy.Publisher('/move_group/display_planned_path',
moveit_msgs.msg.DisplayTrajectory, queue_size=20)
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5.2.2 Basic Information Print
To get some basic information, you can run the following:
# To print the reference frame of robot:
planning_frame =group.get_planning_frame()
print planning_frame
# To print the name of the end-effector link for this group:
eef_link =group.get_end_effector_link()
print eef_link
# To print a list of all the groups in the robot:
group_names =robot.get_group_names()
print group_names
# To print the entire state of the robot:
robot_state =robot.get_current_state()
print robot_state
5.2.3 Simple Move
To move the robot, run the following piece of code:
joint_goal =group.get_current_joint_values()
joint_goal[0]= 0
joint_goal[1]= -pi/4
joint_goal[2]= 0
joint_goal[3]= -pi/2
joint_goal[4]= 0
joint_goal[5]=pi/3
joint_goal[6]= 0
group.go(joint_goal, wait=True)
group.stop() # makes sure no residual movements left
5.2.4 Planning to Pose Goal
To plan a simple pose and move the robot, run the following piece of code:
pose_goal =geometry_msgs.msg.Pose()
pose_goal.orientation.w= 1.0
pose_goal.position.x= 0.4
pose_goal.position.y= 0.1
pose_goal.position.z= 0.4
group.set_pose_target(pose_goal)
plan =group.go(wait=True)
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group.stop()
group.clear_pose_targets() # clear targets after planning
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