mujoco_sim

ROS interface for MuJoCo simulator

Overview

mujoco_sim_x4.mp4

spawning.robots.mp4

Features

• Advanced physics engine from https://mujoco.org/
• Import and export of URDF and MJCF
• Integration of controller interfaces, controller managers and hardware interfaces from http://wiki.ros.org/ros_control
• Integrate PD computed-torque control to ensure stability
• Spawn objects and destroy objects in run-time using rosservice
• Synchronize simulation time and real time (the simulation time can also be set to speed up or slow down)
• Visualize everything from MuJoCo to rviz
• Provide velocity controller for the base
• Support mimic joints from URDF

Installation

1. Create a workspace

source /opt/ros/<ros-version>/setup.bash    # source ROS
mkdir -p ~/mujoco_ws/src                    # create directory for workspace

2. Initialize the workspace from this file and update the workspace

wstool init ~/mujoco_ws/src                 # initialize .rosinstall
wstool merge -t ~/mujoco_ws/src https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HoangGiang93/mujoco_ws/main/noetic.rosinstall
wstool update -t ~/mujoco_ws/src            # pull the repositories

3. Install dependency of all packages in the workspace

rosdep install --ignore-src --from-paths ~/mujoco_ws/src/mujoco_sim/ ~/mujoco_ws/src/mujoco_msgs/ ~/mujoco_ws/src/mujoco_world/  # install dependencies available through apt

4. Build packages

cd ~/mujoco_ws                              # go to the workspace directory
catkin_make                                 # build packages (or catkin build)
source ~/mujoco_ws/devel/setup.bash         # source new overlay

Quick start

This tutorial shows a quick view of some basic functionalities of this software. To learn more details please checkout this Wiki

1. Import robot from URDF

mujoco_import.mp4

2. Control the robot

mujoco_sim integrates hardware interfaces from http://wiki.ros.org/ros_control. Currently only effort-based joints are supported, so PID gains are required. It's recommended to set the parameters as {p: 2000, i: 100, d: 50}

Here are some examples:

• Joint position controller
  • Include ur_pos_control.launch in the launch file ur5_display.launch, then launch it

roslaunch ur_mujoco ur5_display.launch        # Show up everything
rosrun ur_control test_joint_pos_publisher.py # Run a test

mujoco_pos_control.mp4

• Joint velocity controller
  • Include ur_vel_control.launch in the launch file ur5_display.launch, then launch it

roslaunch ur_mujoco ur5_display.launch        # Show up everything
rosrun ur_control test_joint_vel_publisher.py # Run a test

mujoco_vel_control.mp4

• Joint trajectory controller (using test_trajectory from http://wiki.ros.org/ros_control_boilerplate)
  • Include ur_traj_control.launch in the launch file ur5_display.launch, then launch it

roslaunch ur_mujoco ur5_display.launch          # Show up everything
roslaunch ur_control ur_test_trajectory.launch  # Run a test

mujoco_traj_control.mp4

• Cartesian trajectory controller (using giskard, a cool framework for constraint- and optimization-based robot motion control, which is highly recommended)
  • Include franka_traj_control.launch in the launch file panda_arm_display.launch, then launch it

roslaunch franka_mujoco panda_arm_display.launch          # Show up everything
roslaunch giskardpy giskardpy_panda_arm.launch            # Run giskard

mujoco_cartesian_traj_control.mp4

• Run the whole pick-and-place demo (using giskard, please update the following .rosinstall)

wstool merge -t ~/mujoco_ws/src https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HoangGiang93/mujoco_ws/main/giskard.rosinstall
wstool update -t ~/mujoco_ws/src
cd ~/mujoco_ws/src
catkin build
source ~/mujoco_ws/devel/setup.bash
roslaunch franka_mujoco dual_panda_arm_demo.launch

Troubleshooting

1. ERROR: gladLoadGL error

• Solution: sudo apt install nvidia-driver-515

Software architecture