Robot speed is low and not adjustable when using MoveIt2

[mehradmrt]

I am using MoveIt2 interface to run the TM5 robot. Setting max_velocity_scaling_factor does not change the robot's speed. I have struggled with robot speed and don't know if the problem is coming from the robot driver packages or moveIt. Using the demo packages (no Moveit) the robot velocity is correctly set and executed.

Will appreciate a solution or a possible workaround to temporarily resolve the issue. I am mainly working on the foxy version but also tested it on humble and ran into same issues.

• Robot Device: [TM5]
• Your OS and Version: [e.g. Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04]
• ROS insatll: [e.g. ROS2 Foxy and Humble]
• MoveIt install: [e.g. MoveIt2 on Foxy and Humble]

[okvik]

When controling the robot with MoveIt you may want to set the TM project to always run at 100% speed, and then scale that for each planned motion using MoveIt interfaces like setMaxVelocityScalingFactor() . I don't know whether it is possible to control the project speed externally using SVR or SCT interfaces, I haven't had a need to do it as our entire program is done using MoveIt.

[mehradmrt]

Thanks for your reply @okvik. I did so but still the robot speed does not increase. I developed my code using MoveItCpp and on top of the demo that was already available in the repo, as opposed to MoveGroup where the setMaxVelocityScalingFactor() is available.

[okvik]

I'm sure there's equivalent functionality for velocity scaling with MoveItCpp.

[MasterpieceNKA]

I edited my config/joint_limits.yaml file to include max_acceleration values eg.

joint_limits:
  joint_1:
    has_velocity_limits: true
    max_velocity: 2.0943951023931953
    has_acceleration_limits: true
    max_acceleration: 13.0
  joint_2:
    has_velocity_limits: true
    max_velocity: 2.0943951023931953
    has_acceleration_limits: true
    max_acceleration: 13.0

This stops MoveIt from assuming a default acceleration of 1.0 rad/s^2 for each joint. More explanations can be found here: ros-industrial/motoman#345 (comment)

I could not find the exact acceleration values for my TM12 cobot but 13.0 rad/s^2 improved the speeds. The cobot reached the max_velocity of 2.09 rad/s by the third waypoint when jogging joint_1 on its own.

These are the results from doing a Z-axis motion of the TCP

[Cadodo97]

Hi @MasterpieceNKA,
looking your image I saw you are using demo_set_positions.cpp.

I'm trying to move my tm5-900 with demo_set_positions.cpp but when I run:
ros2 run demo demo_set_positions
I got:
`[INFO] [1743506944.568405746] [rclcpp]: service not available, waiting again...

[INFO] [1743506945.568680670] [rclcpp]: service not available, waiting again...

[INFO] [1743506946.568790423] [rclcpp]: service not available, waiting again...

[INFO] [1743506947.568936001] [rclcpp]: service not available, waiting again...

[INFO] [1743506948.569089665] [rclcpp]: service not available, waiting again... `

Do you have any idea to address this issue?
Thanks a lot for your time.

[MasterpieceNKA]

Hi @Cadodo97,

I had the tm_driver running on the other terminal that is squeezed to the left of the one showing. I think you are getting that error because you have not run ros2 run tm_driver tm_driver robot_ip:=... command.

I was moving the robot from RViz even though demo_set_positions is opened on VS Code. But either way you need to have tm_driver running.

Hope that helps.

[Cadodo97]

Hi @MasterpieceNKA thank for your quick reply,

I missed this information but in the other terminal I had launched:
ros2 launch tm5-900_moveit_config tm5-900_run_move_group.launch.py
But yes, I'm not run the command: ros2 run tm_driver tm_driver robot_ip:=... because right now I have not the robot.

Do you think work just with robot connected?
Also, do you think it is necessary to download MLFlow to use this Repo?

Short Recap: right now, I'm just looking the potentially of this repo in simulation in order to evaluate the use of Omron robot in my future applications. That's the cause I'm interested just to the simulation.

Thank you.

[MasterpieceNKA]

@Cadodo97 You are welcome. Yes. Most functionality require the tm_driver to be connected to an actual robot. The code does show something about running in simulation but I don't know much about that. The only simulation I have done is running MoveIT related code minus any TechMan stuff using launch files similar to those provided in this library minus tm_driver and related nodes.

A few challenges and workarounds I have seen are:

• you cannot run the vision node and the listen node together. The workaround was explained here Combining Listen task with Vision task #9 (comment)
• the robot I'm using has a Robotiq gripper connected via modbus to the robot. I have yet to find a way to getting the joint state of the gripper published. I use a digital output to track the open/close state of the gripper. I set one of two different output pins to high to open or close the gripper, trigger send a "ScriptExit(1)" script request and use if statements to determine which action to take between (open gripper, close gripper, and take image). I also update the digital output pin that tracks the state of the gripper depending on the action taken.

I could share sections of my code if you do choose this robot and face similar issues. Cheers.

[Cadodo97]

@MasterpieceNKA sorry for the late.
Leave me your email, I will write you, maybe I have something useful for Robotiq gripper.

My idea is to start gazebo simulation with tm5x900 and controll it with moveit. The gazebo simulation is important because allow me to simulate my setup, with camera, object and other staff of the environment.

Really, thanks a lot for your time.