Develop with ROS/ROS2

Develop robot applications using the tools, libraries, and capabilities provided by ROS and ROS2.

Overview

ROS, or Robot Operating System, is actually a misnomer for it is not an operating system. Rather, ROS is an open sourced framework that provides different sets of software libraries and tools that help build robot applications. Universal Robots officially provides, and supports drivers for ROS and ROS2.

Download the ROS/ROS2 Drivers

In order to use the ROS and ROS2 drivers, you must have ROS and/or ROS2 installed. For more guidance on this process, and information on the differences between the two frame works, visit the ROS Get Started page.

ROS Driver

In order to download and use the ROS driver, follow the instructions from this GitHub Repo.

Develop with ROS Driver

ROS2 Driver

Here are the resources needed to get started with the ROS2 driver. This driver has built-in support with MoveIt!

Develop with ROS2 Driver

Key Features of UR ROS/ROS2 Drivers

Reach Cartesian targets more precisly with factory calibration of the robot

Use the robot's speed-scaling

Take advantage of the 2ms cycle time with realtime-enabled communication

Replace the teach pendant with ROS Services and action calls

Improve interpolation between waypoints with on the robot interpolation for Cartesian and joint-based trajectories

What is ROS?

ROS contains building blocks that can be utilized to develop your applications. These four blocks work together to help you reach your goals.

Plumbing

At its core, ROS provides a message-passing system, often called “middleware” or “plumbing”. This is responsible for handling process management, inter process communication, and device drivers (such as the UR ROS Drivers).

Tools

In order to build a good application, it is crucial to have the appropriate developer tools at your disposal. ROS has tools for launch, introspection, debugging, visualization, plotting, logging, and playback.

Capabilities

The capabilities of the tools allow you to easily implement and integrate motion control, trajectory and motion planning, perception, mapping, and manipulation into your application.

Community

Not unlike Universal Robots, ROS has an extensive developer community. With this, there are many resources available to users. The package organization and software distribution are kept up to date, and the tutorials and documentation available is extremely in-depth and easy to follow. If you have any road blocks or feedback, reach out to the ROS Community and get involved.