Control of 2F Gripper and wrist camera on UR10e using ROS Melodic

Stefan 2020-01-30

I would like to control the 2F-85 gripper and the wrist camera on my UR10e using ROS. The USB-Hub for gripper and wrist camera is connected to the UR controller. Is it possible to control both gripper and camera with ROS?

Regarding to this discussion https://dof.robotiq.com/discussion/1671/how-do-you-control-the-2f-gripper-using-ros-if-its-connected-to-a-ur5e-robot#latest , the new Universal Robot Driver https://github.com/UniversalRobots/Universal_Robots_ROS_Driver/blob/master/ur_robot_driver/doc/setup_tool_communication.md might be capable of forwarding the UART port of the gripper as a virtual serial port on the ROS machine. However, I am not sure which settings (e.g. serial port) I need for the tool communication. Connecting to the UR controller via ssh and using dmesg | grep tty in the terminal, leads to:

[ 0.000000] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=(hd0,3)/vmlinuz root=LABEL=rootfs.0 rootfstype=ext3 console=ttyS0,115200 consoleblank=0 net.ifnames=0 biosdevname=0 panic=60 intel_idle.max_cstate=0 processor.max_cstate=0 sdhci_pci.max_freq=0 idle=poll splash quiet rauc.slot=A isolcpus=3
[ 0.000000] console [ttyS0] enabled
[ 3.573559] 00:02: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4, base_baud = 115200) is a 16550A
[ 7.381382] systemd[1]: Expecting device dev-ttyS0.device...
[ 86.551742] cdc_acm 1-2.3.1:1.2: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
[ 86.552132] cdc_acm 1-2.3.1:1.5: ttyACM1: USB ACM device

However, I am not sure if the UART port of the gripper is listed...

Assuming that the UR driver is capable of providing a virtual serial port, is this http://wiki.ros.org/robotiq?distro=kinetic still the preferred ROS package for the control of the gripper even if ROS Melodic is used?

Best regards,

Stefan

bcastets 2020-01-30

The ROS package of the gripper (http://wiki.ros.org/robotiq) works on ROS Melodic.

Here are tutorials:
http://wiki.ros.org/robotiq/Tutorials

Regarding the camera, you may manage to access the camera image via UR controller USB but you will have limited control over the camera. Camera parameters like focus, exposure, white balance cannot be controlled.

Stefan 2020-02-03

Ok, thank you for the information about the ROS package. The tutorial assumes that the serial to USB converter of the gripper is connected to a USB port of the computer. In my case, gripper and camera are connected to the UR controller. Do you have an idea how I can find out the UART port of the gripper at the UR controller? So I might be able to use the UR driver and forward the port as a virtual serial port on the ROS machine.

bcastets 2020-02-03

I recommend that you get the UR ROS package. They have some tools to emulate the RS485 wirst communication of the robot on the PC.
https://github.com/UniversalRobots/Universal_Robots_ROS_Driver/blob/master/ur_robot_driver/doc/setup_tool_communication.md

You can also check this related post:
https://dof.robotiq.com/discussion/comment/5811#Comment_5811

Stefan 2020-02-03

Ok, thanks for the links but I am already using the UR driver as well as the RS485 URCap for the wrist communication.

However, the second link might helpful because it mentions that the Robotiq_Gripper URCap must be deactivated for the ROS control because it conflicts with the communication of the RS485 URCap. I will try it and will let you know :)

Anuj018 2022-06-21

Hello Everyone,
I am interested in using the 2F-85 gripper with ROS and would like to know if there is a ROS2 galactic driver available for this gripper.
I am currently using a UR10E robot with the UniversalRobots_ros2_driver and would also like to know if this driver has some tools to emulate the RS485 wirst communication of the robot on the PC.

bcastets 2022-06-22

We did not developed a package for ros2 but you may find some projects done by the community.