panthera_ht_ros

This meta package contains the ROS 2 packages used to control the Panthera HT robot arm and gripper.

This is a simplified version of the existing repository providing basic functionalities to Panthera-HT robotic arm. For a full version visit the HighTorque-Robotics' original repository.

What each package does

• hightorque_robot contains the low-level SDK wrapper.
• panthera_description provides the robot description used by ROS tooling and visualization.
• panthera_interfaces defines the custom messages and services used by the arm control node.
• panthera_arm_control provides direct SDK-based control without MoveIt.
• panthera_moveit provides the hardware interface plugin and MoveIt configuration.

Requirements

• Ubuntu 24.04
• ROS 2 Jazzy

Build

Make sure that you are using the newest packages:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

From the workspace root:

source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash
rosdep update
rosdep install --from-paths . --ignore-src -r -y
colcon build --symlink-install
source install/setup.bash

Usage

MoveIt

Launch the hardware stack and MoveIt from panthera_moveit:

source install/setup.bash
ros2 launch panthera_moveit hardware_moveit.launch.py

To visualize MoveIt in RViz, you can build the package on your local machine and run:

source install/setup.bash
ros2 launch panthera_moveit rviz.launch.py

Direct SDK-based arm control

source install/setup.bash
ros2 launch panthera_arm_control arm_control.launch.py

You can optionally launch joystick teleop together with arm control:

source install/setup.bash
ros2 launch panthera_arm_control arm_control.launch.py launch_joy_teleop:=true

By default the teleop node subscribes to the /joy topic, so you need to publish data to it (for example with joy_linux node).

ROS interfaces by node

panthera_arm_control/arm_control_node

Publishers:

• joint_states (sensor_msgs/msg/JointState)
• arm_status (panthera_interfaces/msg/ArmStatus)
• end_pose_euler (panthera_interfaces/msg/EndPoseEuler)

Subscribers:

• arm_joint_cmd (std_msgs/msg/Float64MultiArray)
• gripper_cmd (std_msgs/msg/Bool)
• enable_flag (std_msgs/msg/Bool)
• pos_cmd (panthera_interfaces/msg/PosCmd)

Services (servers):

• move_to_joint (panthera_interfaces/srv/MoveToJoint)
• move_to_pose (panthera_interfaces/srv/MoveToPose)
• gripper_control (panthera_interfaces/srv/GripperControl)
• enable_srv (panthera_interfaces/srv/Enable)
• go_zero_srv (panthera_interfaces/srv/GoZero)
• stop_srv (std_srvs/srv/Trigger)
• reset_srv (std_srvs/srv/Trigger)
• gripper_srv (panthera_interfaces/srv/GripperSrv)

panthera_arm_control/arm_joy_teleop_node

Publishers:

• pos_cmd (panthera_interfaces/msg/PosCmd)

Subscribers:

• joy (sensor_msgs/msg/Joy)
• end_pose_euler (panthera_interfaces/msg/EndPoseEuler)

Nodes launched by panthera_moveit/hardware_moveit.launch.py

hardware_moveit.launch.py starts move_group and includes hardware.launch.py, which starts ros2_control_node (/controller_manager) plus controller spawners.

moveit_ros_move_group/move_group

Subscribers:

• /joint_states (sensor_msgs/msg/JointState)

Services:

• /compute_ik (moveit_msgs/srv/GetPositionIK)
• /compute_fk (moveit_msgs/srv/GetPositionFK)
• /plan_kinematic_path (moveit_msgs/srv/GetMotionPlan)
• /get_planning_scene (moveit_msgs/srv/GetPlanningScene)
• /apply_planning_scene (moveit_msgs/srv/ApplyPlanningScene)
• /get_cartesian_path (moveit_msgs/srv/GetCartesianPath)

Note:

• MoveIt also publishes/subscribes additional planning-scene and visualization topics, and uses controller actions configured in panthera_moveit/config/moveit_controllers.yaml.

controller_manager/ros2_control_node (/controller_manager)

Services:

• /controller_manager/list_controllers
• /controller_manager/load_controller
• /controller_manager/configure_controller
• /controller_manager/switch_controller
• /controller_manager/unload_controller
• /controller_manager/list_hardware_interfaces

Note:

• Loaded controllers expose their own interfaces:
  • joint_state_broadcaster publishes joint states.
  • arm_controller and gripper_controller expose FollowJointTrajectory action interfaces.