Hi Kefei,

Hopefully Kanstantinos' pointers can get you going. If you need
clarifications please ask questions on http://answers.ros.org. It's a much
better forum for asking questions and finding solutions. And we try to keep
the mailing list focused on announcements and general discussions of
interest to large portions of the community.

Tully


On Tue, Jun 3, 2014 at 2:34 PM, Konstantinos Chatzilygeroudis <
costashatz@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Well, firstly, welcome to ROS!!
>
> I believe the links below will help you fulfill your task:
>
> http://gazebosim.org/wiki/Install/Gazebo_and_ROS
>
> http://gazebosim.org/wiki/Tutorials/1.9/Overview_of_new_ROS_integration
> (follow the tutorials)
>
> http://wiki.ros.org/ros_control
>
> Also, take a look at my implementation of a ROS driver to Nao (nao_dcm
> <https://github.com/costashatz/nao_dcm>), where I am using ros
> controllers (and controller manager) alongside with Gazebo. If you need
> more clarifications, feel free to send me an email.
>
> Although, I didn't understand completely what you mean a plugin that
> manipulates the actuators.
>
> Best,
> Konstantinos Chatzilygeroudis
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 4, 2014 at 12:06 AM, Kefei Zeng <kefei.zeng@mail.utoronto.ca>
> wrote:
>
>>   Hello, everybody. I've only started to use ROS last week as part of my
>> internship. I'm using Gazebo 2.2.2 in conjunction with ROS Indigo and
>> Ubuntu 14.04 'Trusty'. I was tasked to research a way to write a simple
>> plugin that could control a robot. I was told that I should aim for a
>> plugin that causes the robot to move by actually controlling its actuator
>> motor and not simply moving the model's joints. I've searched a ways to
>> write a plugin for manipulating the acutator, but no luck with a specific
>> example yet.
>>
>>  Here's what I know so far:
>> The stack ros_control has something to do with using actuators and works
>> best with URDF.
>> URDF files have the <actuator> tag.
>>  None of the default models included in Gazebo have actuators, only
>> joints.
>> The gazebosim.org tutorial page does not contain instructions for
>> writing plugins for actuators, only world, system, model, and sensors.
>>
>>  What I don't know:
>> Can I use actuators in an .sdf file?
>> What does ros_controller (NOT ros_control) actually do? The ROS wiki has
>> little information on this stack.
>> Is it true that it's better to use URDF rather than SDF for actuators?
>> Especially since the tutorial on the Gazebo wiki specifies the use of URDF.
>>  *What exactly is the format of an actuator configuration file (if it's
>> possible)?*
>> *Is it actually possible to write a plugin that manipulates the actuators
>> instead of the model itself or the joints?*
>>
>>  Any help would be greatly appreciated. If anyone needs clarification on
>> some of the things I said, feel free to ask. I'll do my best to make things
>> clear.
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> ros-users mailing list
>> ros-users@lists.ros.org
>> http://lists.ros.org/mailman/listinfo/ros-users
>>
>>
>
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