The driver is designed to be a drop-in replacement of the ur_driver package. It won't overwrite your current driver though, so you can use and test this package without risking to break your current setup.

Just use the modified launch files included in this package instead of those in ur_bringup. Everything else should work as usual.

Improvements

The driver exposes the same functionality as the previous ur_driver:

*Action interface on /follow_joint_trajectory for seamless integration with MoveIt

*Publishes robot joint state on /joint_states

*Publishes TCP force on state on /wrench

*Publishes IO states state on /io_states

*Service call to set outputs and payload (Note: I am not sure if setting the payload actually works, as the robot GUI does not update. This is also true for the old ur_driver )

Besides this, the driver subscribes to two new topics:

*/ur_driver/URScript : takes messages of type std_msgs/String and directly forwards it to the robot. Note that no control is done on the input, so use at your own risk! Inteded for sending movel/movej commands directly to the robot.

*/joint_speed : takes messages of type trajectory_msgs/JointTrajectory, parses the first JointTracetoryPoint and sends the specified joint speeds and accelerations to the robot. This interface is intended for doing visual servoing and other kind of control that requires speed control rather than position control of the robot. Remember to set values for all 6 joints. Ignores the field joint_names, so set the values in the correct order.

No script is sent to the robot. This means that the teach pendant can be used to move the robot around while the driver is running.

Should be compatible with all robots and control boxes with the newest firmware. Tested with:

*Real UR10 with CB2 running 1.8.14035

*Real UR5 with CB2 running 1.8.14035

*Simulated UR3 running 3.1.18024

*Simulated UR5 running 3.0.16471

*Simulated UR5 running 1.8.16941

*Simulated UR5 running 1.7.10857

*Simulated UR5 running 1.6.08725