Summary
In this chapter, we explored the different capabilities of MoveIt 2, a motion planning framework integrated with ROS 2 that allows developers to implement manipulation operations with industrial arms. MoveIt 2 already supports different models of popular robots, however, new robots can be configured to properly work with it thanks to an intuitive setup assistant that drives the user to create all the necessary configuration files to plan and execute desired motion trajectories.
We started the chapter by discussing the main concepts of MoveIt 2 and then showed how to configure a new simulated robot to properly work with it. Finally, we showed how to create C++ ROS 2 nodes to implement plans and execute obstacle-free motion trajectories, which is the main usage of industrial manipulators.
In the next chapter, we will move on to how to use ROS 2 to implement perception algorithms, implement image elaboration algorithms, and work with 3D point cloud data.