LightningROS is planner implementing the planner described at http://arc.wpi.edu/download.php?p=9 (see "Combined Learning and Manipulation Planning" under the projects tab at the WPI ARC Lab website).

This project was originally worked on at a repository over in SourceForge, but it never got updated beyond working with ROS Fuerte. This version has been updated to run with ROS Indigo and MoveIt.

No major changes were made to the actual functionality and algorithms that the LightningROS library uses, so much of the information available on the original SourceForge documentation is still relevant, although it should be taken with a grain of salt.

Further documentation beyond what is shown here can be found on the wiki for this github repository.

##Setup the package

1. Clone the repository into a lightning directory in your ROS Workspace.
2. Run catkin_make --pkg lightning to build lightning.

##Run lightning tests

To run tests, make sure the ROBOT environment variable is set to "sim".

1. Specify the number of test iterations with the num_test_iterations argument and the arm to use (right or left) with the arm_to_use argument in the *_test.launch file
2. Run roslaunch lightning table_test.launch or roslaunch lightning box_test.launch
3. table_test: The scene is a tabletop with four boxes on it. The positions of the boxes are randomly chosen and a goal position is chosen around the top of the table.
4. box_test: The scene is a tabletop with a large box on it. The box opening is facing towards the robot, and the goal position is chosen to be inside the box.
5. Lightning will store paths in the library for the given scene.

##Run lightning:

1. To start lightning, run roslaunch lightning lightning.launch.
2. To do planning, send a GetMotionPlanRequest to the lightning_get_path service. Lightning does not currently handle path constraints. It only plans for a start and a goal.

##Path library management:

There are three management actions for the path library: storing a path, deleting a path, and deleting a library.

1. storing a path: Send the path as an array of JointTrajectoryPoints. Also, specify the robot name and the joint names, as those define which library to use. If the library for the given robot name and joint names does not exist, a new one will be created.
2. deleting a path: Send the path id of the path to delete. Again, specify the robot name and the joint names corresponding to the library that is to be changed.
3. deleting a library: Send the robot name and joint names corresponding to the library that is to be deleted.