This is a ROS 2 package to simulate the Boston Dynamics spot in webots. The goal is to control the spot via a teleop. Therefore, the joint angles for the leg motors must be calculated when a or none command velocity is received.
In this project we try to realize the developed kinematic of SoftServe for Gazebo under webots.
- Tested for ubuntu 20.04
- ROS 2 foxy
- Webots R2022a
- Webots ROS 2 interface
Webots R2022a can be installed via apt package manager or downloaded here.
The webots ros2 interface can also be directly installed via apt and should be working fine, but i would recommend to follow the Build and Install instructions and install it from sources. Then you are able to checkout the newest version 1.2.2 of the webots ros2 interface.
# Source ROS 2
source /opt/ros/$ROS_DISTRO/local_setup.bash
cd /path/to/ros2_ws
git clone https://github.com/METEORITENMAX/webots_ros2_spot.git src/webots_spot
git clone https://github.com/METEORITENMAX/webots_spot_teleop.git src/spot_teleop
git clone https://github.com/METEORITENMAX/webots_spot_msgs.git src/spot_msgs
# Build everything
colcon build
source install/local_setup.bash
Starting the simulation:
ros2 launch webots_spot spot_launch.py
Teleop keyboard:
ros2 run spot_teleop spot_teleop_keyboard
The leg kinematic of the spot is ported from the SoftServeSAG robotics_spot repo.
The python scripts for the invervse kinematic: Bezier.py, LegKinematics.py, LieAlgebra.py and SpotKinematics.py are nearly untouched.
Only the height is set to 0.84 instead of 0.6, according to the original dimensions found from Boston Dynamics docs.
At a height of 0.6, the spot stretches its legs and falls to the ground when the simulation starts.
The env_tester.py and gui_spot.py are integreted in spot_driver.py.
I added touch sensors on the feet for all legs to detect contact with the ground used for GenerateTrajectory().
Also, i changed the min/max position for the leg motors inside the Spot.proto resp. SpotRightLeg.proto and SpotLeftLeg.proto to the limitations from SoftServe found in e.g. SpotKinematics.py.
To calculate YawRate_desired the self.yaw_inst is set by reading the rotation field of the robot itself.
The spot_teleop_keyboard sends GaitInput.msg recevied by the spot_driver.
Moving in x,y,z and roll, pitch yaw almost works. When moving in z, the spot does not go completely to its knees.
Also, the teleop allows the movement to overshoot, so the robot falls.
The reason for this could be mismatched motor limitations or parameters for hip, shoulder, elbow in the SpotKinematics.py and LegKinematics.py or spot.proto.
Moving forward is not working at all.