Simulating the robotic arm using Gazebo and ROS

In the previous chapter, we designed a seven DOF arm. In this section, we will simulate the robot in Gazebo using ROS.

Before starting with Gazebo and ROS, we should install the following packages to work with Gazebo and ROS.

• In ROS Jade:

  $ sudo apt-get install ros-jade-gazebo-ros-pkgs ros-jade-gazebo-ros ros-jade-gazebo-msgs ros-jade-gazebo-plugins
  

• In ROS Indigo:

  $ sudo apt-get install ros-indigo-gazebo-ros-pkgs ros-indigo-gazebo-msgs ros-indigo-gazebo-plugins ros-indigo-gazebo-ros-control
  

The use of each package is as follows:

• gazebo_ros_pkgs: This contains wrappers and tools for interfacing ROS with Gazebo
• gazebo-msgs: This contains messages and service data structures for interfacing with Gazebo from ROS
• gazebo-plugins: This contains Gazebo plugins for sensors, actuators, and so on.
• gazebo-ros-control: This contains standard controllers to communicate between ROS and Gazebo

After installation, check whether the Gazebo is properly installed in...