prl_ur5_robot_configuration

This repo holds the current configuration of the bimanual UR5 robot.

Contents

• Setups

• Arm and Gripper configuration

• Network configuration

• Cameras configuration

  • dataset_collection.yaml
  • cameras_config.yaml

• Custom gripper URDF

• Quick start

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Setups

For different experiments, the robot can be equipped with different grippers and sensors. To simplify modification, changeable parameters are placed in separate setup files in the config/ directory. Each setup file contains a list of used devices and calibration parameters. The calibration parameters include the positions of the arms, grippers, sensors, and kinematic parameters of UR5 arms.

---

Quick start

1. Choose or duplicate a setup file in config/
2. Update arm poses and grippers to match your hardware
3. Configure network IPs and ports
4. Configure cameras if used
5. Launch the robot with the selected setup

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Arm and Gripper configuration

To configure your setup, edit the prl_ur5_robot_configuration/config/standard_setup.yaml file. Update the following parameters to match your hardware:

Parameter	Description	Example Value
arm_pose.x	X position of the arm in meters	-0.765
arm_pose.y	Y position of the arm in meters	-0.09
arm_pose.z	Z position of the arm in meters	0.01
arm_pose.roll	Roll rotation in radians	0
arm_pose.pitch	Pitch rotation in radians	0
arm_pose.yaw	Yaw rotation in radians	0
gripper	Gripper type and hand configuration (enum)	custom:no_gripper
gripper_controller	Controller name for the gripper (enum)	none
gripper_pose.x	X position of the gripper offset in meters	0.0
gripper_pose.y	Y position of the gripper offset in meters	0.0
gripper_pose.z	Z position of the gripper offset in meters	0.01
gripper_pose.roll	Gripper roll rotation in radians	0.0
gripper_pose.pitch	Gripper pitch rotation in radians	0.0
gripper_pose.yaw	Gripper yaw rotation in radians	0.0
camera	End effector camera model identifier (enum)	realsense-d435i
camera_pose.x	X position of the camera in meters	-1.82e-05
camera_pose.y	Y position of the camera in meters	0.0213
camera_pose.z	Z position of the camera in meters	0.173
camera_pose.roll	Camera roll rotation in radians	0.284
camera_pose.pitch	Camera pitch rotation in radians	-1.561
camera_pose.yaw	Camera yaw rotation in radians	-1.868

---

Supported gripper values

Gripper	Supported controllers	Description
onrobot-rg2	onrobot-rg	OnRobot RG2 parallel gripper
onrobot-rg6	onrobot-rg	OnRobot RG6 parallel gripper
onrobot-rg6-v2	onrobot-rg	OnRobot RG6 parallel gripper (version 2)
weiss-wsg50	weiss-gripper	Weiss WSG 50 parallel gripper
custom:no_gripper	none	Custom gripper configuration with no specific controller
custom:cylinder_tool	none	Custom gripper configuration for a cylindrical tool with no specific controller
allegro-hand:right	allegro-hand	Allegro Hand – right hand configuration
allegro-hand:left	allegro-hand	Allegro Hand – left hand configuration

---

Network configuration

This file defines the network settings used to communicate with robot arms. Each arm is described by a user-defined arm name (e.g., left_network, right_network).

<arm_name>:
  ip: <ip_address>
  ...

Each arm must use unique ports. IP and ports must match the robot configuration.

Network parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
<arm_name>	string	User-defined arm network identifier
ip	string	Robot controller IP address
script_command_port	string	Port used to send script commands
reverse_port	string	Reverse communication port
script_sender_port	string	Script sender communication port
trajectory_port	string	Trajectory streaming port

---

Cameras configuration

dataset_collection.yaml

This file defines the physical placement of cameras in the environment. Each camera entry is an item in a list and represents one mounted camera.

- type: <camera_model>
  name_prefix: <camera_name>
  ...

• The order of entries is not significant
• name_prefix must be unique
• The camera name is derived from name_prefix

Common camera parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
type	enum	Camera model (realsense-d435i, femto-mega)
name_prefix	string	Camera identifier prefix
bounding_box	object	Physical camera footprint (meters)
pose	object	Camera pose in world frame
fixture_orientation	enum	Mount orientation relative to fixture
offset	object	Offset from fixture tip to camera optical frame

Bounding box parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
bounding_box.width	float	Camera width in meters
bounding_box.height	float	Camera height in meters

The bounding box can be shared between cameras using YAML anchors.

Pose parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
pose.x	float	X position in meters
pose.y	float	Y position in meters
pose.z	float	Z position in meters
pose.roll	float	Roll rotation in radians
pose.pitch	float	Pitch rotation in radians
pose.yaw	float	Yaw rotation in radians

Fixture orientation

Value	Description
+y	Camera mounted facing positive Y axis
-y	Camera mounted facing negative Y axis
+x	Camera mounted facing positive X axis
-x	Camera mounted facing negative X axis

Offset parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
offset.x	float	X offset in meters
offset.y	float	Y offset in meters
offset.z	float	Z offset in meters

Offset is applied from the fixture tip to the camera optical frame.

---

cameras_config.yaml

Each camera is defined by a user-defined camera name (e.g., alpha_camera, front_cam, camera_1). This name is used as a key and can be freely chosen by the user.

cameras:
  <camera_name>:
    type: <camera_type>
    activate: <true|false>
    ...

Note

type refers to the camera driver (realsense, femto-mega), while the model (e.g., realsense-d435i) is defined in the setup file.

RealSense camera parameters (type: realsense)

Parameter	Type	Description
serial_no	string	RealSense device serial number
enable_depth	bool	Enable depth stream
enable_infra	bool	Enable infrared streams (requires infra1 or infra2)
enable_infra1	bool	Enable infrared stream 1
enable_infra2	bool	Enable infrared stream 2
enable_color	bool	Enable RGB stream
enable_gyro	bool	Enable gyroscope stream
enable_accel	bool	Enable accelerometer stream
enable_rgbd	bool	Enable RGB-D combined stream
pointcloud	bool	Enable point cloud generation
enable_sync	bool	Enable hardware synchronization
align_depth	bool	Align depth to color frame

Femto Mega camera parameters (type: femto-mega)

Parameter	Type	Description
ip	string	Camera IP address
port	string	Camera communication port
sync_mode	enum	Synchronization mode (standalone, master, slave)
enable_colored_point_cloud	bool	Enable colored point cloud
depth_registration	bool	Register depth to color frame

---

Custom gripper URDF

In the *_setup.yaml file, the type of gripper used for each arm is specified. Standard types include 'onrobot-rg2', 'onrobot-rg6', 'onrobot-rg6-v2', etc.

To attach custom tools, create a custom URDF in the custom_gripper/ directory.

Usage

To create a custom tool/gripper named my_gripper, prl_ur5_description expects:

1. prl_ur5_robot_configuration/urdf/my_gripper.urdf.xacro containing:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<robot xmlns:xacro="http://wiki.ros.org/xacro">
  <xacro:macro name="my_gripper" params="parent *origin prefix">
      ...
  </xacro:macro>
</robot>

with the first link being the child of ${parent} with a transform of *origin and all the link and joint having the prefix ${prefix} in front of their names.

2. prl_ur5_robot_configuration/urdf/my_gripper.srdf.xacro containing:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<robot xmlns:xacro="http://wiki.ros.org/xacro">
    <xacro:macro name="cylinder_tool_group_define" params="prefix">
        ...$1...
    </xacro:macro>

    <xacro:macro name="cylinder_tool_autocol" params="prefix">
        ...$2...
    </xacro:macro>

    <xacro:macro name="cylinder_tool_col_with" params="prefix link">
        ...$3...
    </xacro:macro>
</robot>

with $1 being <link> and <joint> tags defining the gripper, $2 being <disable_collision> tags to disable all the necessary autocollisions inside the gripper, and $3 being <disable_collision> tags to disable the collisions between all the gripper links and an arbitrary ${link} link.

Then in *_setup.yaml set:

...
  gripper: "custom:my_gripper"
...

Note: It is strongly recommended to create a link named ${prefix}_grasp_frame in the gripper URDF (corresponding to the tip/grasp point of the gripper/tool) to keep consistency with the other grippers.