gomtec Roberta

This page describes the Roberta robot ROS interface by gomtec GmbH. For more information on Roberta, visit our homepage.

Roberta is a light, adaptable, and inexpensive 6-Axis industrial Robot. It was specifically developed for small and medium-size enterprises which are focused on flexible and efficient automation.

Roberta’s excellent payload-to-structural weight ratio was largely achieved by means of the new drive system. At its heart is a highly weight- and power-optimised servomotor which, for a given torque, reduces power losses by half when compared to a conventional motor. In addition to unique high-resolution resolver technology, integrated joint electronics have been developed which manage communication as well as controlling the motor and safety brake. Roberta is supplied as standard with an integrated RoboCommander®, an input device which can simultaneously control up to six degrees of freedom. This allows the user to intuitively hold and move the robot to any point in the workspace with any desired orientation of the tool or gripper.

The technical data of the various Roberta models are summarised in the below table.

Sources

The sources of the software can be downloaded from http://github.com/gomtec/. You can clone the latest version of the software through the web interface or by command-line:

git clone git@github.com:/gomtec/roberta-ros

or, if you so prefer,

git clone https://github.com/gomtec/roberta-ros

depending on your preferred way of authentication.

Installation

The software has been tested in an Ubuntu 13.04 environment running ROS 1.10.2 (Hydro Medusa). Your mileage may vary if you run other environments; please contact us at ros(-- at --)gomtec dot de if or software in your different environment does (or does not) run.

To download the software to your home directory and then immediately prepare the software for running, the following steps are required:

git clone git@github.com:/gomtec/roberta-ros
ROS_PACKAGE_PATH=${ROS_PACKAGE_PATH}:`pwd`/roberta-ros/gomtec_ros-workspace/

Alternatively, of course, you can install it in the system ROS base directory, provided you can write in that directory. This has as advantage that it is usable for all users on that machine/in that network:

# Create the stacks directory, which does not exist in a naked ROS installation
mkdir -p /opt/ros/${ROS_DISTRO}/stacks/
cd /opt/ros/${ROS_DISTRO}/stacks/
git clone git@github.com:/gomtec/roberta-ros

(The above syntax is for Bash. You may have to adapt for other shells.)

Running

1. Roberta Simulator

An rviz visualisation of the Roberta robot can be started as follows:

roscd gomtec_robot_description
roslaunch gomtec_robot_description display.launch model:=urdf/Roberta_P80_800.urdf gui:=true

The joint angles can be changed by using the Joint State Publisher shown to the right. This window is created using the Python programme joint_state_gateway.py, the source of which is included in the distribution.