ROS

The AQUARM Description repository provides a ROS 2 description package with URDF/Xacro models, meshes, RViz configuration, and viewers for the arm and gripper.

Build the Description Package

Start in a terminal with your ROS 2 environment sourced. The commands below use a workspace at ~/aquarm_ws.

mkdir -p ~/aquarm_ws/src
cd ~/aquarm_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/kalman-kr/aquarm_description.git
cd ~/aquarm_ws
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y
colcon build --packages-select aquarm_description
source install/setup.bash

Initialize rosdep and run rosdep update first if it has not been set up on your machine. Runtime dependencies include rclpy, robot_state_publisher, joint_state_publisher_gui, rviz2, and xacro.

Visualize in RViz

Open the arm with its gripper:

ros2 run aquarm_description viewer_aquarm.py

For the gripper-only model, run:

ros2 run aquarm_description viewer_gripper.py

The arm viewer loads urdf/aquarm_origin_with_gripper.urdf. Both viewers start robot_state_publisher, RViz, and joint_state_publisher_gui by default. Use the GUI to change joint positions.

When another node supplies /joint_states, disable the joint GUI:

ros2 run aquarm_description viewer_aquarm.py --no-joint-gui

Run Directly from a Checkout

With the ROS 2 environment and runtime dependencies available, you can also start the viewers from the repository root without building:

cd ~/aquarm_ws/src/aquarm_description
python3 viewer_aquarm.py
# Or display only the gripper:
python3 viewer_gripper.py

Building the package is required when other ROS packages need to resolve package://aquarm_description/... or $(find aquarm_description).

SDK Integration

The description package provides visualization; it does not provide a hardware controller or a trajectory action server. The SDK Guide covers the SDK examples that communicate directly with the controller through KCAN.