I would like to make Baxter in Gazebo7 check for self-collisions. I have migrated the SDF property tag from the old selfCollide to self_collide for various links, but it does not seem to check for self collision.

If I set self_collide to true for the entire model, Baxter convulses because of links that are always in collision. I tried this approach using the URDF tag:

  <gazebo reference="">
    <self_collide>1</self_collide>
  </gazebo>

If I set the self_collide to true for two consecuitive links that are connected with a fixed joint, I get the warning:

Warning [parser_urdf.cc:1232] multiple inconsistent <self_collide> exists due to fixed joint reduction overwriting previous value [true] with [false].

If I only set self_collide to true for links that are not fixed, I still do not see the links "colliding" in simulation when I run them into each other. Part of this XML looks like:

  <gazebo reference="right_upper_shoulder">
    <self_collide>1</self_collide>
  </gazebo>
  <gazebo reference="right_lower_shoulder">
    <self_collide>1</self_collide>
  </gazebo>
  <gazebo reference="right_upper_elbow">
    <self_collide>1</self_collide>
  </gazebo>
  <gazebo reference="right_lower_elbow">
    <self_collide>1</self_collide>
  </gazebo>
  <gazebo reference="right_upper_forearm">
    <self_collide>1</self_collide>
  </gazebo>
  <gazebo reference="right_lower_forearm">
    <self_collide>1</self_collide>
  </gazebo>

Also, in the Gazebo GUI, the checkbox under the link proprety for self collide is disabled, why can't I toggle this property at run time?

Thanks for the clarification!