Category: Robotics

Welcome to my software development and robotics related blog

Real-time collision detection for Panda with OpenCL

In this blog post I will present a collision detection algorithm specifically tailored for use with Panda. The algorithm was developed as part of my ongoing PhD thesis and later improved by my student Johannes Schwaiger as part of his bachelor’s thesis. The collision detection algorithm is able to analyze point clouds from depth cameras…
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Building a Web Interface for Visualizing Panda

In this blog post we are going to construct a minimalist web interface that shows information about the robot’s current state in numbers and shows it in an embedded 3d visualizer: Our intention in this post is to set-up the fundamental components that are needed to communicate with the ROS master from a modern web…
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Automatic robot state initialization in Gazebo

In this post we implement a ROS node that automatically initializes the robot state in Gazebo to a valid configuration . This is achieved by means of a custom joint position controller and the controller switching mechanism provided by the controller manager.

ROS development with Visual Studio Code inside a Docker container

In this post I am going to share my workflow for using Visual Studio Code as a development environment for ROS within a Docker container.

Attach a box to the robot hand in Gazebo

In this post we are going to attach a simple box to the hand of Panda robot in the Gazebo simulation environment.

ROS development with Visual Studio Code

In this post I am going to share my workflow and best practices for using Visual Studio Code as a development environment for ROS.

MoveIt! – Constraint-aware planning

In this post we are going to utilize MoveIt! in order to navigate Panda in a cluttered environment in the Gazebo simulation.

Integrating FRANKA EMIKA Panda robot into Gazebo

In this post I will outline a step-by-step procedure to simulate the Panda robot in Gazebo and connect it to MoveIt! for motion planning.