Creating the COLLADA file of a robot to work with OpenRave

In this section, we will discuss how to use URDF robot models with OpenRave. Firstly, we will see how to convert an URDF in a collada file (.dae) format; this file will be then used to generate the IKFast source file. To convert a URDF model into a collada file, we can use a ROS package, called collada_urdf.

We will work with the ABB IRB 6640 robot model, which can be found in the abb_irb6600_support package in the /urdf folder named irb6640.urdf. Alternatively, you can take this file from the ikfast_demo folder released with the book code. Copy this file into your working folder and run the following command for the conversion:

$ roscore && rosrun collada_urdf urdf_to_collada irb6640.urdf irb6640.dae

The output of the previous command is the robotic model in the collada file format.

Note

In most of the cases, this command fails because most of the URDF file contains STL meshes and it may not convert into DAE as we expected. If...