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PickNik Inc. has launched MoveIt Pro 7.0, a major update to its robotic arm application development platform. The company has highlighted substantial advancements in key areas, including accelerated development, hardware compatibility, and intelligent decision-making capabilities during operations.
Established in 2015 as part of the Amazon Picking Challenge, PickNik Robotics aims to enhance precision and operational efficiency across various sectors, including aerospace, construction, and logistics. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, the firm is also an active participant in the open-source Robot Operating System (ROS) community.
Enhancements for Swift Development
With the introduction of MoveIt Pro 7.0, PickNik has significantly boosted planning speeds on its MoveIt platform by optimizing its fundamental planning tools. Users can expect more efficient default settings for functions like PlanCartesianPath and ValidateTrajectory.
Furthermore, processes like SetupMTCMoveAlongFrameAxis have been refined for faster Cartesian planning. To streamline operations even further, the RobotModel is now directly integrated into the BehaviorContext, which reduces loading delays.
Another notable feature is the addition of click-to-segment functionality utilizing ONNX models. This allows users to segment objects from point clouds efficiently through the new GetMasks2DFromPointQuery functionality, demonstrated in the “Segment Point Cloud from Clicked Point” example objective.
MoveIt Pro 7.0 also introduces various new behaviors. Notable additions include AddToolToScene and RemoveToolFromScene, which simplify tool management within the planning environment. Users can create linear joint trajectories effortlessly with the GeneratePointToPointTrajectory function, while GetTrajectoryStateAtTime provides precise joint states at designated intervals.
The update also features a Trajectory Stitching capability within the Joint Trajectory Admittance Controller (JTAC), allowing robots to integrate new trajectories with ongoing tasks seamlessly, promoting enhanced task continuity and minimizing downtime.
Additionally, a new inverse kinematics solver named PoseIK has been integrated, which purportedly operates ten times faster than current open-source alternatives, thus enabling robots to calculate solutions with unprecedented speed.
The user interface has also undergone a transformation, featuring unified terminology, improved labeling, and better organized port arrangements. Visualization options for global and local cost maps, TRIANGLE_LIST markers, and mesh collision objects have been enhanced to improve the overall user experience.
Moreover, the update includes better notifications and an improved sidebar, which now unifies Build and Run tabs—permitting users to keep the sidebar active while executing tasks. This facilitates quicker multitasking and enhances overall workflow efficiency.
Commitment to Hardware-Agnostic Design
MoveIt Pro 7.0 further extends its hardware-agnostic capabilities with enhanced pro-RRT support, which now accommodates robots with continuous joints to achieve motion along the shortest paths to target angles.
The software also supports two-degree-of-freedom (DoF) orientation constraints to ensure accurate tool alignment. Such advancements bolster MoveIt Pro’s adaptability to a wide range of hardware configurations.
Furthermore, improved tool management was a priority, with the AttachTool behavior now requiring tools to be present in the Planning Scene prior to attachment. Additionally, DetachTool functionality has been enhanced for smooth transitions, automatically reinserting detached tools back into the scene.
Improvements regarding compatibility and setup efficiency have also been implemented, with some older behaviors deprecated in favor of the more adaptable For Each behavior. Workspace configurations have been simplified as well, consolidating active files into a single objectives folder. Additionally, a guide for utilizing MoveIt Pro ML on Jetson devices has been added to facilitate GPU acceleration.
Advancements in Runtime Decision-Making
PickNik has equipped MoveIt Pro 7.0 with advanced capabilities for dynamic application behavior. Enhanced features like GetTrajectoryStateAtTime and GeneratePointToPointTrajectory augment the precision and reliability of runtime adjustments. The platform has also introduced clear warnings for deprecated behaviors to assist users during transitions.
Runtime control has seen significant upgrades, including subtree port remapping to avoid unnecessary input/output creations, which allows users to re-retrieve input port values during execution for accurate updates.
Additionally, the latest update incorporates numerous bug fixes aimed at enhancing overall performance, such as:
- Resolved layout issues within the Behavior Tree Editor
- Addressed crash incidents due to incomplete configurations
- Improved CPU efficiency in the “Run” tab
- Enhanced handling of ROS image topics to prevent layout resets
Finally, PickNik has dedicated efforts to improving documentation and onboarding processes, adding extensive new guides on tool-changing workflows, AprilTag usage, Nav2 setup, and a thorough guide for running MoveIt Pro without requiring a command-line interface. This is designed to make the platform more accessible and user-friendly for all developers.
Source
www.therobotreport.com