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RobWorkProject
23.9.11-
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RobWorkProject
23.9.11-
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The workcell XML file format have suffix .xml and follow the rules of standard XML.
The workcell file describes workcell elements such as frames, joints, DAFs, devices and the properties that relate to these elements such as name, parent name, joint limits, position and orientation, collision geometry, drawing geometry and even user defined properties.
The basic structure of a workcell is frames. Frames are connected in a tree like fasion such that each frame has a parent and [0;many] children. The root of the frame tree is called the world frame and this frame is the only frame that has no parent. The world frame is named WORLD.
Frames come in many different types: fixed frame, movable frame, prismatic joint, revolute joint, and so on. They can be freely defined and connected in the workcell file, though often frames will be grouped into devices.
A device is a robot with one or more joints. It defines a scope where frames that belong to that device can be described. A device always has a base frame which is the frame belonging to the device that has a parent that does not belong to the device. That is, a device defines a sub tree in the frame tree. There exists severel device types: serial device, tree device, parallel device and so on, that allow different sort of connections between the joints of the device.
User properties can be attached to any frame. A property has a name and a string value. The property is saved in the frame such that the user can retreve it and parse the string himself.
A collision setup is a set of include or exclude rules that tell which frame pairs that should not or should be tested for collision. Ex. two neighboring links on a robot will usually collide in their attachment points, which is undesirable, the collision setup should in this case be used to exclude those frames from collision checking.
An important thing to notice is that some xml elements are scope dependent. In general the refframe and refjoint attributes are optional and if not defined then scope rules will define them instead.
Ex. when defining a frame in workcell or a device scope the frame will automaically be attached to the previusly defined frame.
<WorkCell name="testwc"> ... <Frame name="A" refframe="WORLD" /> <Frame name="B" /> <Frame name="C" refframe="A" /> ... </WorkCell>
in the above example A attaches to world and B and C attaches to A.
Another example illustrates how properties defined inside a frame can omit the refframe attribute.
<WorkCell name="testwc">
...
<Frame name="A" refframe="WORLD">
<Property name="A_Property"> some string value</Property>
</Frame>
<Property name="A_nother_Property" refframe="A">some string value</Property>
...
</WorkCell>Before going deep into the grammar of the rw xml format some common structure need be explained. The complete kinematic description is based on a construct named Frame. The Frame has a name and a transform relative to its parent frame or refframe. This means that a kinematic Frame tree can be described with multiple frames. The Frame can be of different types the simplest being Fixed, which means that the frame transform is unchangeable.
Another common structure is the Property. The property is linket to a frame and has a name, description and a string value. Properties are used to link different information to frames. F.ex. collision models and drawables are described using properties. properties are also used to allow users to attach user specific information to frames.
In the xml file format Frames are grouped logicly in container type elements. These elements are WorkCell and device types. To avoid name clashes frames belonging to a container type will have the container name prepended. Example: a frame named "base" specified in a device named "PA10" in a workcell named "scene" will have the unique name "scene.PA10.base".
The WorkCell element is the root element in the fileformat. It implicitly defines a Fixed frame named World. This world frame is the root frame in the kinematic frame tree.
workcell *(frame | Drawable | SerialDevice | TreeDevice | ParallelDevice | MobileDevice | CollisionSetup )
Element WorkCell
Attributes
Child elements: The DeviceType is any of the device types that can be defined, see section Device .
rule := *( DeviceType | Frame | Joint | DHJoint | CollisionModel | Drawable | CollisionSetup )
Example
<WorkCell name="scene"> ... </WorkCell>
The different device types are much alike when considering the child elements that they allow. Though they vary somehow in the implicit rules of frame attachment.
In general a device defines a scope. This scope has the same name as the device. Any frames defined inside the scope of a device gets the device name appended. Ex. given a device "dev" and a frame "base" in the device the complete frame name becomes: "dev.base"
The serial device only allows joints to be connected in a serial chain. And it also only allows one single endeffector.
Element SerialDevice
Attributes
Child elements:
Example
<SerialDevice name="RobotArm"> ... </SerialDevice>
The tree device allows joints to be connected in a tree like structure. And it also allows for multiple endeffectors.
Element TreeDevice
Attributes
Child elements:
Example
<TreeDevice name="RobotHand"> ... </TreeDevice>
The parallel device is like a number of serial devices (with same base) with all endeffectors rigidly connected together. The initial configuration of the robot is required to make all endeffectors align in the same pose. For devices that are connected in multiple places, it is also possible to define so-called junctions. Each Junction must specify two or more chains, where each chain referes to a list of previously defined SerialChains. Notice that each of these chains must start and end in equivalent frames. If no junctions are defined, one implicit junction is created, assuming that each of the defined serial chains must end in the same endeffector frame.
Attributes
Child elements:
Example
Take the following kinematic structure as an example:
___
/--------------------|-C |
/ ___ | |
/-- B ------------|-D-|----|-E |
/ \ ___ | | |___|
/ \---|-F | | |
/ | | | |
A -----------|-G-|----|-H-|
|___| |___|
Each of the 8 serial chains, A to H, can contain one or more joints. The boxes show three places where the device must be connected. This can be specified in the device with Junction tags:
<ParallelDevice name="RobotHand"> ... <Junction> <Chains>C</Chains> <Chains>D E</Chains> </Junction> <Junction> <Chains>B D</Chains> <Chains>G H</Chains> </Junction> <Junction> <Chains>B F</Chains> <Chains>G</Chains> </Junction> ... </ParallelDevice>
Notice that the first serial chain (A) was left out in all the cases, as it is equal for all chains. For the junction ending after chains C and E, both A and B was left out, as they do not provide any extra information.
The mobile device defines a two wheeled mobile robot where the two wheels are on the same axel displaced from the center of the axel with some width AxelWidth.
Attributes
Child elements:
Example
<MobileDevice name="Pioneer" basename="Base"> ... </MobileDevice>
Attributes
Child elements
!((RPY >> Pos) | Transform) >> *(Property | CollisionModel | Drawable)
Example
<Frame name="myframe" refframe="WORLD"> </Frame>
Attributes
Child elements
!((RPY >> Pos) | Transform) >> *(PosLimit | VelLimit | AccLimit | Depend | Property | CollisionModel | Drawable)
Example
A joint that is defined from the Denavit Hartenberg notation. The Craig DH variant is used. This can only specify Revolute or Prismatic joints
Attributes
rule := name >> alpha >> a >> (d >> offset)|(theta >> offset);
Child elements
!((RPY >> Pos) | Transform) >> *(PosLimit | VelLimit | AccLimit | Depend | Property | CollisionModel | Drawable)
Example
Attributes
Child Elements
!((RPY >> Pos) | Transform) >> *(RGB) >> *(Polytope | Sphere | Box | Cone | Cylinder)
Example
Attributes
Child Elements
!((RPY >> Pos) | Transform) >> *(Polytope | Sphere | Box | Cone | Cylinder)
Example
Attributes
Child Elements
Example A user property for defining a camera on a frame. The string value can be parsed by the user to get image dimensions [640;480] and field of view 40
<Property name="Camera" refframe="WORLD" desc="[fovy,width,height]">
40 640 480
</Property>
When the 'Camera' property name is used, this will also, when opened in RobWorkStudio, draw the outline of the camera frame. In this case the camera parameters will always be interpreted in the order fovy,width,height, as shown above, ignoring the description given.
Example A user property for enabling the display of the frame axis. This will automatically execute the TreeView plugin action of turning on the visibility of the frame axis.
<Frame name="my_frame">
<RPY>0 0 0</RPY>
<Pos>0 0 1</RPY>
<Property name="ShowFrameAxis">true</Property>
</Frame>
Attributes
Child Elements All real values are parsed into a rotation matrix R and a position P
R00 >> R01 >> R02 >> P0 >> R10 >> R11 >> R12 >> P1 >> R01 >> R21 >> R22 >> P2
Example Loads the identity rotation and the (0.1,0.1,0.1) position. Values are seperated by whitespace.
<Transform> 1 0 0 0.1 0 1 0 0.1 0 0 1 0.1 </Transform>
Attributes
Child Elements Loads RPY values seperated by whitespace
roll >> pitch >> yaw
Example A rotation matrix with 90 degree rotation around z-axis
<RPY> 90 0 0 </RPY>
Attributes
Child Elements Defines the simple material colors for the visual model. This material is used if the model does not support the color/material information (e.g. when geometric primitive or STL model is used).
r >> g >> b >> *a
Example Simple material color with RGB values [1.0, 0.0, 0.0] (red color).
<RGB> 1.0 0.0 0.0 </RGB>
Example Simple material color with transparency: RGBA values [1.0, 1.0, 0.0 0.5] (transparent yellow color).
<RGB> 1.0 1.0 0.0 0.5 </RGB>
Attributes
Child Elements Loads pos values seperated by whitespace
x >> y >> z
Example
<Pos> 0.1 0.1 0.2 </Pos>
Attributes
Example
<Polytope file="c:/geometry/object.stl" />
Attributes
Example
<Sphere radius="0.05" /> <Sphere radius="0.05" level="20" />
Attributes
Example
<Box x="0.1" y="0.1" z="0.1" />
Attributes
Example
<Cone radius="0.1" z="0.1" /> <Cone radius="0.1" z="0.1" level="10"/>
Attributes
Example
<Cylinder radius="0.1" z="0.1" /> <Cylinder radius="0.1" z="0.1" level="20"/>
Attributes
Example
<Tube radius="0.1" thickness="0.01" z="0.1"/> <Tube radius="0.1" thickness="0.01" z="0.1" level="10"/>
Attributes
Example
<CollisionSetup file="../mydevice/colsetup.xml" />
Attributes
Example
<PosLimit refjoint="joint1" min="-90" max="90" />
Attributes
Example
<VelLimit refjoint="joint1" max="180" />
Attributes
Example
<AccLimit refjoint="joint1" max="180" />
1.9.1