Configuring MoveIt Studio

MoveIt Studio is designed to switch between various site configurations. A site configuration is a description of the system, including

The robot(s) being operated and the environment.

Configuration files describing sensors, actuators, controllers, and MoveIt settings for motion planning.

The available set of Objectives, Behaviors, and Waypoints for that specific configuration.

For more details, refer to Configuring MoveIt Studio for a Specific Robot.

Configuration Files and Folders

When you download MoveIt Studio, a file named .env is created in the current directory. This file stores the necessary variables to configure MoveIt Studio.

Additionally, launching MoveIt Studio creates a few important folders on your system:

${HOME}/.config/moveit_studio: Contains files specific to your current site configuration. This includes any new Objectives and Waypoints, or changes to existing ones, as you use the MoveIt Studio web app.

${HOME}/.local/share/moveit_studio: Contains persistent MoveIt Studio data, such as authentication data and meshes to be rendered in the UI.

/var/log/moveit_studio: Contains saved logs from previous runs of MoveIt Studio.

Running the Configuration Script

The moveit_studio utility script includes a tool to modify many configurable parameters in a step by step manner. To start the configuration utility, run:

cd $HOME/moveit_studio
./moveit_studio configure

And walk through the prompts. See the script’s help text for a complete list of launch options and runnable commands with:

./moveit_studio help

Changing Site Configurations

MoveIt Studio will start by default with the picknik_ur_site_config configuration package, which describes a simulated UR5e robot on a stationary base.

To change the site configuration used when launching MoveIt Studio you can run the configuration utility above. Alternatively, specify an alternate site configuration package at runtime:

cd $HOME/moveit_studio
./moveit_studio run --config-name my_site_config

For example, to switch from the default configuration to a UR5e Gazebo configuration, you can change the configuration name to picknik_ur_gazebo_config at launch time.

Note that switching site configurations requires deleting the configuration folder at ${HOME}/.config/moveit_studio for the necessary changes to take effect. You will be prompted to delete this folder when reconfiguring MoveIt Studio, in case you would like to back up any data before switching configurations.

Note

Setting STUDIO_CONFIG_PACKAGE=picknik_ur_gazebo_config in your .env file is equivalent to specifying picknik_ur_gazebo_config as the new configuration when running ./moveit_studio configure or ./moveit_studio run --config-name picknik_ur_gazebo_config. After changing the configuration in the .env file manually, remember to delete the configuration folder at ${HOME}/.config/moveit_studio for the changes to take effect!

Mounting a User Workspace

Because MoveIt Studio uses a Docker based solution, not all files generated by the software are immediately available on your host system.

You can choose to mount a user workspace into the MoveIt Studio Docker containers, which allows you to:

Add your own custom packages into MoveIt Studio, including custom site configuration or Behavior packages.

Ensure that Behavior packages generated when you Create a Custom Behavior in the web app are available on your host file system.

To mount a user workspace, run ./moveit_studio configure and follow the prompts.

Note that the user workspace folder must be a valid Colcon workspace. This means that the folder must contain a src subdirectory, which in turn contains Colcon packages.

For example, you can mount a folder located at ~/moveit_studio_ws into MoveIt Studio and use its packages if it has the following structure.

~/moveit_studio_ws
   + --- src/
          + --- my_package_1/
          + --- my_package_2/

Note

Your workspace will be bind mounted into the /opt/moveit_studio/user_ws folder of the MoveIt Studio containers.

Setting STUDIO_HOST_USER_WORKSPACE=~/moveit_studio_ws in your .env file is equivalent to specifying ~/moveit_studio_ws as the workspace you want to mount when running ./moveit_studio configure.