Many of the machines we need to model have tree structure instead of a chain structure and would be easily modeled using URDF and XACRO as in ROS.
While we can model them with the graphical interface and control them using a python script, it would be a nice feature to have the possibility to model them using URDFs and have a joints window when selected as you have for the robots.
there are multiple machines to be modeled and some of them are still in active development so I will need the tool to convert the urdf into a robot relatevely often.
Some machines present a tree structure with multiple acctuators come from the same base
Others have closed chain kinematics so we are thinking of using sdf to describe them instead
We are still developing the pipeline to create the urdf/sdf automatically but once that is done it would greatly simplify the machine creation in RoboDK
I have added attached a simplified urdf generated using the SW2URDF plugin (Assem2.SLDASM.txt).It is missing the joint that closes the kinematic loopso far. Change the extension to .rar
We need some guidance on how to model the machines in our cell
I attached an example that shows how you can model a custom mechanism composed of an array of objects and you can update each object independently. This example update the objects in one shot using one API call so it should work if you have many mechanisms.
Yes, I understand that we would have to update the machine joints from a python script but, that would put a lot of development on creating a kinematic model for every machine. That is why I was hoping to be able to import and URDF file that describes the machine and kinematics.
Modeling a closed chain machine like the one attached, while possible with a python script, the complexity quickly adds up
Thanks for the fast development. I have tested the Plugin both with my own and other urdf packages (articubot) and, it seems to have some issues with relative paths.
I tested changing all file-paths to absolute and managed to import the urdf but it does not create the joints between them (all objects are children of the same frame). I was hopping to populate the object tree as described in the urdf so that i could focus on the python script that descries the movement.
I am attaching the a side by side comparison of the imported model and the one I manually created for manipulation. The python script can be used to manipulate it
