Hi All,
I’m new to this and saw the robot arm on thingiverse (WE-R2.4 Six-Axis Robot Arm by LoboCNC - Thingiverse) and wondering if this WE-R2.4 Six-Axis Robot Arm is compatible to run with ROS? if so, are there any documentations or codes on it?
Looking forward to your reply
Thank you,
newbie
I don’t believe it is “plug and play” with ROS but it should be possible to make it work, if you are really interested. It is important to keep in mind that ROS is more of a SDK and development environment. It requires a driver for whatever device you are trying to control and a URDF model for the object being controlled. Then you would still need to create the software/configuration to make the arm do what you want it to do.
I did a quick search and didnt see a TIC T500 stepper controller driver for ROS but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. There are several examples of ROS drivers for pololu steppers.
I also haven’t seen a URDF model for the arm. While the model isn’t absolutely necessary, it is used for motion planning and would help make sure the arm doesn’t try to move through itself. It can also be used to experiment with different kinematics without actually building the robot or risk of damage if your tests go wrong.
I would start by asking the developer of the arm if they have or know of a ROS driver for the pololu they are using or if they have created a URDF model. That might save you the time you will otherwise spend creating these things yourself.