Support for other joint types

[juancamilog]

Is there any reason why the joint types supported in the URDF format are not the same as the ones supported in the SDF format for gazebo?

I was hoping to define articulated to define models for simulation in gazebo, using the "universal", "revolute2" and "ball" joint types. This is for putting passive joints on articulated objects, to be manipulated by a robot arm.

[sloretz]

Hi @juancamilog. Those sound like useful additions. I recommend starting a thread at https://discourse.ros.org/c/robot-description-formats

One thing to keep in mind is joint types with multiple degrees of freedom are difficult for tools relying on sensor_msgs/JointState since the message doesn't have a way to give a position on multiple axes. For example, joint_state_publisher ignores floating joints.