Robotiq Force Torque Sensor

Overview

This repository implements

1. hardware sensor interface plugin for the robotiq force torque sensors

2. description for the robotiq ft300 and fts150

3. ros interfaces for the robotiq fts

It is tested for the Humble distribution

Disclaimer

Most of the code is directly copied by the original ros1 driver Robotiq ros driver so the original licenses and maintainers remain.

How to build

# Step 1 Clone the repository

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

# Build
colcon build --parallel-workers $(nproc) --base-paths src --symlink-install --event-handlers desktop_notification- status-   --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS:BOOL=ON

# Source
. install/setup.bash

How to use

Viewing the robot

# robotiq ft 300
ros2 launch robotiq_ft_sensor_description view_ft300.launch.py 
# ( not working )
ros2 launch robotiq_ft_sensor_description view_fts150.launch.py 

Standalone robotiq node

ros2 launch robotiq_ft_sensor_hardware ft_sensor_standalone.launch.py

Robotiq robot using ros2 control

# For real hardware
ros2 launch robotiq_ft_sensor_hardware robotiq_hardware.launch.py namespace:=robotiq

Fake Hardware

If you do not have the actual hardware but want to test your system a fake hardware parameter is used that will bypass the actual connection to the hardware

# Fake pass through
ros2 launch robotiq_ft_sensor_hardware robotiq_hardware.launch.py fake_hardware:=true namespace:=robotiq

Controller configuration

The controller will publish a topic of type WrenchStamped on the topic name controller_name/wrench with the frame_id in the header as described here

/**:
  controller_manager:
    ros__parameters:
      update_rate: 125  # Hz
      
      robotiq_force_torque_sensor_broadcaster:
        type: force_torque_sensor_broadcaster/ForceTorqueSensorBroadcaster

  # will publish the robotiq_force_torque_sensor_broadcaster/wrench topic of type WrenchStamped with the given frame_id
  robotiq_force_torque_sensor_broadcaster:
    ros__parameters:
      sensor_name: robotiq_ft_sensor
      state_interface_names:
        - force.x
        - force.y
        - force.z
        - torque.x
        - torque.y
        - torque.z
      frame_id: robotiq_ft_frame_id

ftdi_id

ftdi_id if empty string will automatically look for connected devices

Admittance chained controller example

In the robotiq_controllers.yaml an example configuration on how to chain the admittance controller with the scale joint trajectory controller is placed

Use it together with other hardware interfaces

The only requirement for the hardware interfaces to be dynamically loaded and run together by the controller manager is to add to your urdf the ros2 control macro

  <xacro:macro name="robotiq_fts_ros2_control" params="
    name
    fake_hardware:=false
    max_retries:=1
    read_rate:=10
    ftdi_id:=''
  ">
    <ros2_control name="${name}robotiq_ft_sensor" type="sensor">
      <hardware>
          <plugin>robotiq_ft_sensor_hardware/RobotiqFTSensorHardware</plugin>
          <param name="fake_hardware">${fake_hardware}</param>
          <param name="max_retries">${max_retries}</param>
          <param name="read_rate">${read_rate}</param>
          <param name="ftdi_id">${ftdi_id}</param>
      </hardware>
      <sensor name="robotiq_ft_sensor">
        <state_interface name="force.x"/>
        <state_interface name="force.y"/>
        <state_interface name="force.z"/>
        <state_interface name="torque.x"/>
        <state_interface name="torque.y"/>
        <state_interface name="torque.z"/>
      </sensor>

    </ros2_control>

  </xacro:macro>

Example to use the robotiq fts hardware interface in combination with your robot

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<robot xmlns:xacro="http://wiki.ros.org/xacro" name="$(arg name)">

  <!-- args -->
  <xacro:arg name="name" default="robotiq_ft_sensor"/> <!-- your robot name -->
  <xacro:arg name="fake_hardware" default="false"/>
  <xacro:arg name="max_retries" default="100"/>
  <xacro:arg name="read_rate" default="10"/>
  <xacro:arg name="ftdi_id" default=""/>
  <xacro:arg name="tf_prefix" default=""/>

  <!-- import robotiq ros2 control macro -->
  <xacro:include filename="$(find robotiq_ft_sensor_description)/urdf/robotiq_fts.ros2_control.xacro" />

  <!-- robotiq sensor hardware -->
  <xacro:robotiq_fts_ros2_control
      name="$(arg name)"
      fake_hardware="$(arg fake_hardware)"
      max_retries="$(arg max_retries)"
      read_rate="$(arg read_rate)"
      ftdi_id="$(arg ftdi_id)"
  />

</robot>

Additional Info

The hardware interface creates an anonymous self spinning node to implement the service SensorAccessor in the service name robotiq_ft_sensor_acc instead of creating an additional controller.

Furthermore an optional WrenchStamped subscriber is created which will append the values received to the actual data from the sensor for test purposes.

Disclaimer

Most of the code is directly copied by the original ros1 driver Robotiq ros driver so the original licenses and maintainers remain.