Remove Gazebo Classic support and Update for MoveIt Jazzy/Rolling

[sea-bass]

This PR removes Gazebo Classic support, as this breaks builds, and fixes the existing (new) Gazebo support.

For more details, see #217 (comment)

Critically:

• sim_ignition arguments are gone -- which requires this update from the ros2_robotiq_gripper repo: Remove mimic tags and rename sim_ignition to sim_gazebo PickNikRobotics/ros2_robotiq_gripper#54 to address this.
• sim_gazebo arguments now refer to the "one and only" Gazebo

[martinleroux]

Hi @sea-bass ,
Thank you for your contribution. We will examine your pull request as soon as we have a ROS expert available to do so.
In the meantime, I can however tell you that we require Humble builds to pass before we merge.

[sea-bass]

Hi @sea-bass , Thank you for your contribution. We will examine your pull request as soon as we have a ROS expert available to do so. In the meantime, I can however tell you that we require Humble builds to pass before we merge.

Yep, it seems the gz_ros2_control package is not being picked up by CI. Would appreciate a pointer on how to include repos from source, seems the .repos files didn't do it...

[aalmrad]

Hi @sea-bass,
Thanks for the work you've put into this. After review, we believe that it would be preferable not to delete the Gazebo Classic support entirely. Instead, we would like to keep the support available but couple it with a warning for the users. This will provide an opportunity for those relying on this support to migrate to newer versions at their own pace. Your input has been helpful in identifying this part of the codebase that needs attention and we look forward to more of your contributions in the future.

[sea-bass]

Hi @sea-bass, Thanks for the work you've put into this. After review, we believe that it would be preferable not to delete the Gazebo Classic support entirely. Instead, we would like to keep the support available but couple it with a warning for the users. This will provide an opportunity for those relying on this support to migrate to newer versions at their own pace. Your input has been helpful in identifying this part of the codebase that needs attention and we look forward to more of your contributions in the future.

Sounds good. In that case, the gazebo_ros2_control package will have to be provided from source by anyone trying to use this package in Jazzy or later.

Of course, it's your choice, but this will make things harder for users to install on these later versions.

My recommendation would be to remove it from the main branch but keep it around on Iron and earlier branches.

[moriarty]

➕ yep probably best to create a branch where classic gazebo support is maintained and let main move forward and drop support.

Gazebo Classic is EOL in few months.

[martinleroux]

I am reviewing our open PRs. After some thought, I changed my mind and am inclined to agree with @moriarty after all.
Once the builds are fixed, we can merge. @aalmrad , please see that a branch with gazebo-classic is left available outside of main.

[aalmrad]

Hello @sea-bass,

FYI a new branch called Gazebo-Classic-Support was created so that the Gazebo classic support can be removed on the main branch. After fixing the build issues, a merge can be done.

[sea-bass]

Fantastic, thank you! Once the builds are back up, I'll take a look to see if anything else is missing in this PR.

[sea-bass]

I see that other commits are still going into main as this branch is amassing conflicts.

Is there a plan to merge this even if CI is not yet fixed? I can resolve these conflicts if I can get confirmation that someone will help get this into main, but else we may look into other options to unblock the MoveIt tutorials.

[martinleroux]

Hi @sea-bass ,

This was just about to reach the top of our todo list - I really wanted this merged before 2025. If you can solve the conflicts, I will ensure we have a look at it asap.

[sea-bass]

Hi @sea-bass ,

This was just about to reach the top of our todo list - I really wanted this merged before 2025. If you can solve the conflicts, I will ensure we have a look at it asap.

Thanks! I think I've got the conflicts taken care of.

An added benefit is that since the original posting of the PR, the gz_ros2_control package is now available via binaries.

[sea-bass]

OK the branch is ready to go. Tested on Gazebo on ROS 2 Rolling.

kinova_gz.mp4

[aalmrad]

Thank you @sea-bass for your contribution, I am glad to see the system working on ROS2 rolling. I am currently reviewing the PR before merging.

[sea-bass]

Thank you @sea-bass for your contribution, I am glad to see the system working on ROS2 rolling. I am currently reviewing the PR before merging.

Thanks!

One word of warning is that the ompl_planning.yaml files here work on MoveIt Iron and later, but not on Humble. See #223

So you probably will want to branch off a separate humble branch and have this be the main/ros2/rolling/whatever branch after this PR.

That, or introduce some more logic in the launch files, which I'd prefer not to do.

[aalmrad]

After testing this PR, I faced some build problems on my end that seem to be related to some ros2_control updates. Moreover, I will be working on a suitable solution for the moveit packages. Unfortunately, I will be out of the office until the start of January and I will resume working on this as soon as I come back. Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Best,
Abed

[aalmrad]

Hello @sea-bass,

Thank you for your patience and for the work you put into the pull request. While I had planned to complete it shortly after the New Year as we discussed, it ended up taking me a bit longer to prepare the necessary setup on my PC for testing and validation. That said, I want to assure you that the review is now progressing and it will be finalized once i solve the issue with the mimic that is used to control the mounted robotiq grippers.

Best,
Abed

[aalmrad]

Finally, a separate branch for ROS2 Humble with Gazebo classic support was created and the main branch is now dedicated to support ROS2 Jazzy.