Is there a way to query the robot arm/s motion status (moving or not) using this driver

[bhomaidan1990]

Hi,
I do want to query the status of each arm, or at least one of them at once as fast as possible using this driver,
I was using the RWS HTTP server before http://host/rw/rapid/execution which has some drawbacks.

Can you please tell me how can I query the robot motion status (arm moving/not moving) using this driver? thanks in advance.

[gavanderhoorn]

IIRC, there isn't anything specifically publishing something which directly tells you whether a mechanical unit is "moving", but the egm_convergence_met field (in EGMChannelState) comes close.

That field should be false when a new offset has been applied using EGM -- which in the case of abb_robot_driver would be the case when it commands a mechanical unit to move.

Note that when that field transitions to true depends on the convergence settings, but that's mostly a problem/challenge when trying to determine a mechanical unit has stopped moving.

[bhomaidan1990]

@gavanderhoorn thanks for your kind reply, I'm moving the robot using rapid routines through calling them via service calls, rather than activating EGM channels, will this approach be feasible in my case?

[gavanderhoorn]

No.

I must admit that when you post something here, on the abb_robot_driver repository issue tracker / discussion forum, I assume you're actually using abb_robot_driver.

If you are not, then your question is off-topic.

[bhomaidan1990]

"I assume you're actually using abb_robot_driver", I'm using the driver service calls to interact with rapid routines (passing variables, and running the routines) but still I'm not using the EGM now to control the motion of the robot (at least in the current phase).

[gavanderhoorn]

As discussed in #40, "using abb_robot_driver" to me would imply you're actually controlling motion with it. As that's what one would typically understand "using a ROS robot driver" to mean.

It's OK if you only use a part of the driver, but that would be something to clarify, as it's an a-typical use.