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Make the Gazebo GUI work on macOS and keep the robot upright #27

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Merged
Arcod7 merged 1 commit into from
Sep 1, 2026
Merged

Make the Gazebo GUI work on macOS and keep the robot upright #27

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4 changes: 2 additions & 2 deletions description/gazebo/gazebo.xacro
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -379,7 +379,7 @@
</ros2_control>

<gazebo>
<plugin filename="libmock_sensor.so" name="mock_sensor::MockSensorSystem">
<plugin filename="mock_sensor" name="mock_sensor::MockSensorSystem">

@m-brl m-brl Sep 1, 2026

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A tester

<update_rate>10</update_rate>
<topic_name>sensors/left_arm</topic_name>
<sensor/>
Expand All @@ -390,7 +390,7 @@
</plugin>
</gazebo>
<gazebo>
<plugin filename="libmock_sensor.so" name="mock_sensor::MockSensorSystem">
<plugin filename="mock_sensor" name="mock_sensor::MockSensorSystem">
<update_rate>10</update_rate>
<topic_name>sensors/right_arm</topic_name>
<sensor/>
Expand Down
18 changes: 14 additions & 4 deletions description/gazebo/inmoov_gazebo_physics.xacro
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Expand Up @@ -13,10 +13,20 @@
self_collide on adjacent body meshes (avoids jitter), `gazebo_hand_link`
enables it with friction tuned for grasping. -->
<robot xmlns:xacro="http://www.ros.org/wiki/xacro">
<!-- Fix entire stand to the world so the robot does not fall (gz-sim may still move root; heavy mass in URDF is fallback). -->
<gazebo reference="base_node">
<static>true</static>
</gazebo>
<!-- Anchor the stand to the world so the robot does not fall over.

@Arcod7 Arcod7 Sep 1, 2026

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<gazebo reference="..."><static>true</static></gazebo> does not survive
urdf->sdf conversion: sdformat only honours <static> on the model, not on
a link, so the stand stayed dynamic and gravity toppled the robot. A fixed
joint to a `world` link is the conversion-stable way to pin the base, and
leaves every upper-body joint (torso, neck, arms, fingers) free to move.
This file is included only under use_gazebo_sim:=true, so the extra link
never reaches the real/mock-hardware description or its TF tree. -->
<link name="world"/>
<joint name="world_to_base_node" type="fixed">
<parent link="world"/>
<child link="base_node"/>
<origin xyz="0 0 0.02" rpy="0 0 0"/>
</joint>
<gazebo reference="stand_link">
<static>true</static>
</gazebo>
Expand Down
35 changes: 33 additions & 2 deletions launch/gazebo.launch.py
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Expand Up @@ -22,17 +22,20 @@
# frames without an X server — the ros_gz camera bridge stays functional.

import os
import sys
from pathlib import Path

from ament_index_python.packages import get_package_prefix, get_package_share_directory
from launch import LaunchDescription
from launch.actions import (
DeclareLaunchArgument,
ExecuteProcess,
IncludeLaunchDescription,
OpaqueFunction,
SetEnvironmentVariable,
TimerAction,
)
from launch.conditions import UnlessCondition
from launch.launch_description_sources import PythonLaunchDescriptionSource
from launch.substitutions import (
LaunchConfiguration,
Expand All @@ -43,6 +46,9 @@
import yaml


_IS_DARWIN = sys.platform == "darwin"


def _gz_ros2_control_plugin_path():
pkg_share = get_package_prefix("inmoov_urdf")
plugin_path = os.path.join(pkg_share, "lib", "mock_sensor")
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -270,6 +276,11 @@ def _camera_compressor(topic: str, compressed_topic: str) -> Node:
# When headless: server-only (-s) with EGL rendering (--headless-rendering)
# so OGRE2 still renders camera sensors without an X display. Otherwise:
# normal GUI launch.
# macOS cannot run the gz server and the Qt GUI in one process: Cocoa needs

@Arcod7 Arcod7 Sep 1, 2026

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# the GUI on the main thread, so `gz sim` refuses and exits(-1) unless given
# -s or -g (gazebosim/gz-sim#44, enforced in the ruby entry point). Run the
# server with -s here and start `gz sim -g` as a second process below.
gui_server_args = "-s -r " if _IS_DARWIN else "-r "
gz_args = PythonExpression(
[
"'-s -r --headless-rendering ",
Expand All @@ -278,7 +289,8 @@ def _camera_compressor(topic: str, compressed_topic: str) -> Node:
" if '",
LaunchConfiguration("headless"),
"'.lower() in ('true', '1', 'yes') ",
"else '-r ",
"else '",
gui_server_args,
default_world,
"'",
]
Expand All @@ -288,13 +300,31 @@ def _camera_compressor(topic: str, compressed_topic: str) -> Node:
launch_arguments={"gz_args": gz_args}.items(),
)

# Second process for the Qt GUI on macOS (see gz_args). Delayed so the
# server's transport is advertising before the GUI connects to it.
gazebo_gui_actions = []
if _IS_DARWIN:
gazebo_gui_actions.append(
TimerAction(
period=6.0,
actions=[
ExecuteProcess(
cmd=["gz", "sim", "-g"],
name="gazebo_gui",
output="screen",
condition=UnlessCondition(LaunchConfiguration("headless")),
)
],
)
)

spawn_robot = TimerAction(
period=8.0,
actions=[
Node(
package="ros_gz_sim",
executable="create",
arguments=["-name", "lucy", "-topic", "robot_description", "-z", "0.5"],
arguments=["-name", "lucy", "-topic", "robot_description", "-z", "0.0"],
output="screen",
parameters=[{"use_sim_time": True}],
)
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -354,6 +384,7 @@ def spawner_actions_from_yaml(context, *args, **kwargs):
supervisor,
OpaqueFunction(function=spawner_actions_from_yaml),
gz_sim_launch,
*gazebo_gui_actions,
spawn_robot,
bridge,
*camera_compressors,
Expand Down
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