Best way to link models together

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Hi,

I have a robot with multiple tools that can be hot-swapped during operation. Now I want to implement this tool changing also in gazebo (gazebo >= 6) but I'm not really sure what the best way is to achieve this.

Both robot and tool model are spawned individually based on a URDF description. When the tool shall be changed, I will probably delete the tool model, spawn the new tool model and then link tool and robot together. These are the approaches that I have stumbled upon so far:

• Link the two models by joining them with a fixed joint
  • tool model needs to have exact pose before doing this
• Attach the tool as static model via physics::Model::AttachStaticModel() to the robot model
  • tool model has only fixed joints, but if spawned as URDF it is not shown as static in gazebo
• Add the tool model as sub model to the robot model (nested models)
  • possible on the fly? If so, how to specify the pose?