Exodus2025_RoboticArm

A ROS2 control system for a 5-DOF robotic arm using CubeMars AK series motors.

Packages

cubemars_hardware

Hardware interface plugin for ros2_control that communicates with CubeMars AK series motors via CAN bus.

• Real hardware interface for actual CubeMars motors
• Fake hardware interface for testing without physical hardware
• See cubemars_hardware/README.md for motor setup details

arm_description

URDF description and meshes for the robotic arm.

• Robot URDF with placeholder geometry (ready for actual meshes)
• ros2_control macro with configurable hardware interface
• Launch files for visualization

arm_moveit_config

MoveIt2 configuration for motion planning and control.

• SRDF with planning groups
• Kinematics configuration
• MoveIt controllers configuration
• Joint limits
• Ready to be filled with actual planning configurations

arm_controller

Launch files and configurations for bringing up the complete system.

• Main launch file with fake/real hardware switching
• Controller configurations
• See arm_controller/README.md for usage instructions

Quick Start

Prerequisites

sudo apt install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-ros2-control \
                 ros-$ROS_DISTRO-ros2-controllers \
                 ros-$ROS_DISTRO-controller-manager \
                 ros-$ROS_DISTRO-xacro \
                 ros-$ROS_DISTRO-moveit

Build

cd ~/Exodus2025_RoboticArm
colcon build
source install/setup.bash

Launch with Fake Hardware (Testing)

ros2 launch arm_controller arm.launch.py use_fake_hardware:=true

Launch with Real Hardware

First, setup your CAN interface:

sudo ip link set can0 type can bitrate 1000000 // TODO - update the real slcan commands TOMER
sudo ip link set can0 up

Then launch:

ros2 launch arm_controller arm.launch.py use_fake_hardware:=false can_interface:=can0

Visualize Only

ros2 launch arm_description view_robot.launch.py

MoveIt (Motion Planning)

ros2 launch arm_moveit_config moveit.launch.py use_fake_hardware:=true

Hardware Setup

The system is configured for 5 CubeMars motors with the following CAN IDs:

• Joint 1: CAN ID 30 (0x1E) - Base rotation
• Joint 2: CAN ID 31 (0x1F) - Shoulder - Cubemars AK80-6
• Joint 3: CAN ID 32 (0x20) - Elbow - Cubemars AK80-6
• Joint 4: CAN ID 33 (0x21) - Wrist rotation
• Joint 5: CAN ID 34 (0x22) - Wrist bend

For motor configuration and CAN setup details, see cubemars_hardware/README.md.

Testing

Send position commands:

ros2 topic pub /forward_position_controller/commands std_msgs/msg/Float64MultiArray "data: [0.0, 0.5, -0.5, 0.0, 0.0]"

Monitor joint states:

ros2 topic echo /joint_states

List controllers:

ros2 control list_controllers

Development Status

✅ Hardware interface (real and fake)
✅ Basic URDF structure
✅ ros2_control integration
✅ Controller configuration
🚧 Actual robot geometry and meshes (TODO)
🚧 MoveIt planning scene configuration (TODO)
🚧 End effector/gripper integration (TODO)

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details