Unable to find required ROS packages. during Add-On Manager setup of Robotics System Toolbox Support Package for UR Series Manipulators?

Hello, I am setting up MATLAB/Simulink 2023a workflow to work with a UR10e, URSim, and ROS Noetic. The current install base is on a single Ubuntu 20.04 native host.

I am working through the Robotics System Toolbox Support Package for Universal Robotics UR Series Manipulators Add-On Manager Setup. I cant seem to get passed pointing the Setup to the catkin workspace. I have already completed the steps as documented here MathWorks ROS UR Documentation. Both the UR Sim and UR Workspace are installed and the ROS driver communicates with URSim AOK.

I am unclear what the error is intended to guide here? My Ubuntu install is 20.04 and my ROS install is ROS Noetic installed from package per ROS Noetic Wiki and I also followed the MathWork Offline UR Simulation documentation. It would be helpful to understand or perhaps get error feedback on the missing "required ROS packages" is there a way to get this info? Or perhaps there is an order/sequen

ce of steps that is unclear jumping across the difference document links?

[Björn]

Hello,

have you already found a solution or does it work now in any way?

I have exactly the same problem and couldn't solve it yet.

I've also tried it in Ubuntu 18.04 and ROS melodic but it didn't help.

Thank you!

[Wess Gates]

Hi @Björn

No I have not. I have found commingling Robotic Systems Toolbox, URSim, ROS, and Ubuntu a very unreliable maze so far especially when trying to follow the suggested pages below:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/supportpkg/urseries/ug/setup-ursim-offline-simulator.html

https://forum.universal-robots.com/t/offline-simulator-e-series-ur-sim-for-linux-5-11-1-removes-all-installed-files/15384

https://forum.universal-robots.com/t/installing-ursim-on-ubuntu-22-04/23166/4

Also seems like ROS2 will be favored over ROS (2025 EOL) and MathWorks suggesting that Ubuntu 18.04 support will be discontinued in "future versions" would suggest starting with Ubuntu 18.04 is not a good choice. ROS also seems to prefer a Real-Time OS which is "easy" to enable in Ubuntu 22.04 but breaks NVIDIA driver support which is already very fragile when running MATALB/Simulink on Ubuntu. Trying to setup MATLAB/Simulink on Ubuntu 18.04 and/or 20.04 also forces me into this known bug which when applying the workarounds for ---- ironically break any progress made when installing URSim first and then ROS. It has been an incredible maze and excerise in finger pointing as such:

1. Ubuntu slowly discontinuing 32bit support and old Java support
2. URSim being very dated offering Dockers and VMs which make integration with ROS/Matlab/Simulink no easier. Noting that the URSim Docker comes with discliamer that it is for CD/CI testing so use at your own risk
3. URSim apparently uninstalls Linux base stuff and removes ROS all together per the post above
4. MATLAB/Simulink suggesting Ubuntu 18.04 and/or 20.04 which bascially break due to the above two reasons and eventually 18.04 no longer supported
5. ROS moving to ROS2
6. RT LINUX PATCH breaks NVIDIA support and not so much documentation that I have found and how all the packages would live and work well together in this mosty desired setup.

I am still searching for a path forward so I will post my progress. The latest from today is having used the MathWorks provided install scirpt from the toolbox to do all this which breaks my VM.

Answer 1

[Milan Padhiyar]

To bypass the hardware setup please refer to the following steps:

• Go to MATLAB command window.
• Run following command to add the custom ROS messages in the path,

Status = codertarget.manipROSInterface.addCustomROSmsg('ur')

• Note that Status should return true if it execute correctly. This command will add all the required "ur_dashboard_msg" in the MATLAB path.

After this you can directly go through the example and "universalrobot" command should work fine.

[Edwin Díaz]

Thank you so much, this solution work for me.

[Mariam Abed]

Thank you so much! I was genuinely about to lose my mind over this bug

@Milan Padhiyar I just posted a new question on an issue that followed this one, could you maybe assist with this?

https://uk.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/1975754-why-do-i-receive-a-connection-refused-error-when-trying-to-control-the-ur5-via-matlab-but-can-read

[Milan Padhiyar]

Hi Mariam,

Can you please check the link as I am not able to see your question ?

Thanks.

Answer 2

[Wess Gates]

Hello Again,

So far the path I have taken is as follows:

1. Host Machine= Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS + MATLAB/Simulink 2023a
2. VMWare VM = Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS + ROS Noetic (This VM runs on the Host Machine in item 1 above)

Attempt to run the hardware setup for the UR Manipulator results in the following per the picture below. To make matters even more interesting attempts to run the getting started example results in the custom ros messages as unknown which maybe because the setup is incomplete. The connection to URSim between Host and VM appear to be AOK.

[Edwin Díaz]

Hi @Wess Gates

I am having the same error in the Add-On Manager Setup. I'm usign Matlab R2022b and I am trying to control a real UR3 robot. I already install the required ROS packages from the official repository in GitHub Universal_Robots_ROS_Driver, but I keep getting this error message:

Also when I'm trying to run the example script with all connected (The robot conected to the ros driver and the ROS host conected to the Matlab host) I am getting this:

Please let me know if you get solve this problem. I will also continue trying to solve it. If I can solve the problem I will post the solution here.

[Milan Padhiyar]

Hi, Please find here the workaround for this issue.

https://in.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/1934225-unable-to-find-required-ros-packages-during-add-on-manager-setup-of-robotics-system-toolbox-support#answer_1231944