Getting started with real Universal Robots hardware and ROS-I

After testing our control algorithms in simulation using Gazebo, we can start to perform manipulation tasks with a real Universal Robots arm. The main difference between performing a trajectory simulating the robot and using real hardware is that we need to start the driver that will contact the arm controller to set the desired joint positions.

The default driver of Universal Robots arms is released with the ur_driver package of ROS-I. This driver has been successfully tested with system versions ranging from v1.5.7 to v1.8.2. The last version of Universal Robots controllers is v3.2, so the default version of the ROS-I driver might not be fully compatible. For the newer versions of these systems (v3.x and up), it is recommended to use the unofficial ur_modern_driver package:

1. To download ur_modern_driver, use the following Git repository:

   git clone https://github.com/ros-industrial/ur_modern_driver.git

2. After...