AR4 ROS Driver

ROS 2 driver of the AR4 robot arm from Annin Robotics. Tested with ROS 2 Jazzy on Ubuntu 24.04. Also has branch for Humble here.

Supports:

• AR4 MK1 (Original version), MK2, MK3
• AR4 servo gripper

Features:

• MoveIt control
• Gazebo simulation

Video Demo

Add-on Features and Capabilities

The following projects showcases additional features and capabilities built on top of this driver:

• Hand-Eye calibration
• Teleoperation using Xbox controller
• Multi-arm control
• Voice controlled pick and place

Overview

• annin_ar4_description
  • Hardware description of arm & servo gripper urdf.
• annin_ar4_driver
  • ROS interfaces for the arm and servo gripper drivers, built on the ros2_control framework.
  • Manages joint offsets, limits and conversion between joint and actuator messages.
  • Handles communication with the microcontrollers.
• annin_ar4_firmware
  • Firmware for the Teensy and Arduino Nano microcontrollers.
• annin_ar4_moveit_config
  • MoveIt module for motion planning.
  • Controlling the arm and servo gripper through Rviz.
• annin_ar4_gazebo
  • Simulation on Gazebo.

Installation

• Install ROS 2 Jazzy for Ubuntu 24.04
• Clone this repository:

  git clone https://github.com/ycheng517/ar4_ros_driver
  

• Install workspace dependencies:

  rosdep install --from-paths . --ignore-src -r -y
  

• Build the workspace:

  colcon build
  

• Source the workspace:

  source install/setup.bash
  

• Enable serial port access if you haven’t already done so:

  sudo addgroup $USER dialout
  

You will need to log out and back in for changes to take effect.

Firmware Flashing

The Teensy and Arduino Nano sketches provided in annin_ar4_firmware are compatible with the default hardware. To flash it, follow the same procedure as specified in AR4 Robot Setup. An extra step required is to install Bounce2 from the Library Manager in Arduino.

[Optional] Running in Docker Container

A docker container and run script has been provided that can be used to run the robot and any GUI programs. It requires rocker to be installed. Then you can start the docker container with:

docker build -t ar4_ros_driver .

# Adjust the volume mounting and devices based on your project and hardware
rocker --ssh --x11 \
  --devices /dev/ttyUSB0 /dev/ttyACM0 \
  --volume $(pwd):/ar4_ws/src/ar4_ros_driver -- \
  ar4_ros_driver bash

Usage

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file