Getting Started with the FAIRINO MoveIt2 Plugin

Getting Started with the FAIRINO MoveIt2 Plugin

Overview

In this tutorial, we focus on the installation and setup of a basic MoveIt2 environment using the FR5 cobot model. By the end of this tutorial, you should have a basic understanding of MoveIt2, and how to launch a functional planning environment without integrating a real cobot or simulator.

MoveIt 2 is a motion planning framework built on top of ROS2 that adds advanced robotic capabilities such as trajectory planning, collision avoidance, kinematics solving, scene awareness, and motion execution. Instead of manually controlling each robot joint, MoveIt2 allows users to define target positions or poses while the framework automatically computes safe and optimized robot motions. 



Prerequisites

Ubuntu 22.04

To confirm that you are running the correct Ubuntu version, use the following command:
Notes
lsb_release -a



ROS 2 Humble

To verify that ROS 2 Humble is installed correctly, run:

Notes
echo $ROS_DISTRO



If ROS 2 Humble is not installed, you can install it from the official ROS 2 documentation.

Setup Steps

Install MoveIt2 for ROS 2 Humble

Update your package list: 
Notes
sudo apt update
Install MoveIt2 and the MoveIt Setup Assistant
Notes
sudo apt install ros-humble-moveit ros-humble-moveit-setup-assistant
After installation, verify that MoveIt2 was installed successfully:
Notes
ros2 pkg list | grep moveit



MoveIt2 should now be installed and ready to use.

Install the Fairino MoveIt2 Plugin

Clone the `frcobot_ros2` repository:

Source ROS 2 Humble

Before building the plugin locally, make sure your ROS 2 environment is sourced correctly.
Open your `.bashrc` file:
Notes
cat ~/.bashrc
Ensure the following line exists:
Notes
source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash


After updating `.bashrc`, reload it using:
Notes
source ~/.bashrc 

Build the Required Packages

Navigate to your workspace:
Notes
cd ~/path/to/fairino/plugin
Build the required packages sequentially:


Notes
colcon build --packages-select fairino_msgs
source install/setup.bash
colcon build --packages-select fairino_hardware_v3_9_5
source install/setup.bash
colcon build --packages-select fairino_description
source install/setup.bash
colcon build --packages-select fairino5_v6_moveit2_config
source install/setup.bash
Info
Depending on your robot model and software version, you may need to modify the selected hardware package and MoveIt configuration package accordingly.

Launch the MoveIt2 Demo

Once all packages are built successfully, launch the MoveIt2 demo environment:
Notes
ros2 launch fairino5_v6_moveit2_config demo.launch.py

This will start RViz2 with the Fairino FR5 MoveIt2 configuration and allow you to test motion planning with the integrated gripper configuration.


Info
You MUST source your environment in every new terminal session before running the demo
Notes
source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
source ~/path/to/fairino/plugin/install/setup.bash
# Launch MoveIt2 demo
ros2 launch fairino5_v6_moveit2_config demo.launch.py

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