ROS2 Integration

The RoArm-M2-S has an official ROS2 workspace that provides URDF models, MoveIt2 configuration, Gazebo simulation, and topic-based control interfaces. The workspace is designed for ROS2 Humble on Ubuntu 22.04.

Note

The ROS2 workspace is maintained by Waveshare and covers a comprehensive set of tutorials. This page provides an overview and links to the detailed sub-tutorials on the Waveshare wiki.

Overview

The ROS2 integration provides:

• URDF/Xacro model — Accurate 3D model with joint limits and collision geometry
• MoveIt2 configuration — Motion planning with collision avoidance
• Gazebo simulation — Test control code without physical hardware
• ROS2 topics — Publish joint commands, subscribe to feedback
• Launch files — Pre-configured launch configurations for common setups

Workspace Setup

The workspace source code is available from Waveshare:

# Clone the workspace
git clone https://github.com/waveshareteam/roarm_m2.git
cd roarm_m2

# Install dependencies
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y

# Build
colcon build --symlink-install

# Source
source install/setup.bash

Caution

The workspace requires ROS2 Humble and Ubuntu 22.04. Other distributions may work but are not officially supported.

Tutorials

Waveshare provides nine detailed ROS2 tutorials. Each covers a specific aspect of the ROS2 integration:

1. ROS2 Introduction Basic ROS2 concepts and workspace structure

2. URDF Model Arm model, joint definitions, and visualization in RViz

3. MoveIt2 Setup Motion planning configuration and setup assistant

4. Gazebo Simulation Physics simulation and virtual testing

5. Hardware Interface Connecting ROS2 to the physical arm via serial/WiFi

6. Topic Control Publishing joint commands and subscribing to feedback

7. Action Server MoveIt2 action-based trajectory execution

8. Camera Integration Adding vision to the arm for visual servoing

9. Custom Applications Building your own ROS2 nodes for arm control

Quick Start

Launch RViz Visualization

ros2 launch roarm_description display.launch.py

Launch MoveIt2 Planner

ros2 launch roarm_moveit_config demo.launch.py

Launch Gazebo Simulation

ros2 launch roarm_gazebo gazebo.launch.py

Connect to Physical Arm

ros2 launch roarm_driver roarm_driver.launch.py port:=/dev/ttyUSB0

ROS2 Topics

Topic	Type	Direction	Description
/joint_states	sensor_msgs/JointState	Published	Current joint positions
/joint_commands	std_msgs/String	Subscribed	JSON command strings
/arm_feedback	std_msgs/String	Published	Position and torque feedback

Architecture

graph TD
    A[MoveIt2 Planner] --> B[Trajectory Controller]
    B --> C[ROS2 Driver Node]
    C --> D{Transport}
    D -->|Serial| E[ESP32]
    D -->|WiFi/HTTP| E
    E --> F[Servo Bus]
    F --> G[Joint Actuators]
    G --> H[Encoder Feedback]
    H --> E
    E --> C
    C --> I[/joint_states Topic]

Tip

The ROS2 driver node translates between ROS2 joint trajectory messages and the arm’s JSON command protocol. You can use either serial or HTTP as the transport layer.

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ROS2 integration maintained by Waveshare. Tutorial links point to the Waveshare wiki — these are out of scope for this documentation site but are included as reference.