Robotic 6-DOF Arm (UR5 Replica)

Summary

This workspace contains a custom 6-Degree-of-Freedom (DOF) robotic arm, structurally inspired by the industrial UR5 robot.

This project serves as a production-grade testbed for experimenting with pick-and-place tasks, obstacle avoidance, and robotic manipulation using ROS 2, MoveIt 2, and Gazebo. It features a fully dockerized environment, dynamic YAML parameterization, robust error handling, and automated CI/CD testing.

Demo Video and GIF

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🏗️ System Architecture

graph TD
    subgraph "ROS 2 Workspace"
        A[Pick & Place Node] -->|Action Goals| B(MoveIt 2 MoveGroup)
        A -->|Action Goals| C(Gripper Controller)
        A -->|YAML Configs| D[(robot_params.yaml)]
        B -->|Joint Trajectories| E[ros2_control]
        C -->|Joint Trajectories| E
    end
    
    subgraph "Gazebo Simulation"
        E <-->|Plugin| F[Gazebo Harmonic]
        F -->|/joint_states| B
        F -->|/clock| A
    end
    
    subgraph "Hardware Deployment (Future)"
        E -.->|ur_robot_driver| G[Physical UR5 Controller]
    end

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🚀 Quick Start (Docker - Recommended)

The easiest way to run the simulation is using our pre-configured Docker environment. No local ROS installation required.

1. Build the Environment:

   make docker-build

2. Launch the Simulation:

   make docker-sim

   (Gazebo and MoveIt will launch. Wait for the arm and table to spawn).

3. Run the Autonomous Routine: Open a second terminal and run:

   make docker-run

💻 Quick Start (Local)

If you have ROS 2 installed locally:

1. Build the workspace:

   make build

2. Launch the Simulation:

   make sim

3. Run the Autonomous Routine: Open a second terminal and run:

   make run

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🛠️ Key Features

• Production-Ready Docker Environment: Launch the entire simulation stack instantly with zero ROS installation required, eliminating "works on my machine" bugs.
• Robust Error Handling: Real-time preflight checks, workspace bounds validation, and emergency abort routines ensure safe operation.
• Dynamic Parameterization: A single source of truth (robot_params.yaml) governs Cartesian coordinates, joint limits, velocities, and dimensions for rapid iteration without code changes.
• Automated Testing & CI/CD: A comprehensive pytest suite runs automatically on GitHub Actions on every push to guarantee motion reliability.
• KDL Inverse Kinematics: Customized IK solver configured specifically for this 6-DOF architecture.

📦 Packages and Architecture

Directory / Package	Description
robotic_4dof_arm	The core ROS 2 package containing URDF/Xacro models, Python control scripts, and the pytest suite.
arm_moveit_config	MoveIt 2 configuration, including SRDF, kinematics settings, and the master robot_params.yaml.
Dockerfile	Builds an isolated Ubuntu environment with all required dependencies and control libraries.
docker-compose.yml	Maps display sockets and bridges isolated networks for seamless Gazebo UI rendering.

🧪 Testing

To run the automated test suite locally:

make test

The suite verifies parameter consistency, planning scene integrity, and environment dimensions.

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⚙️ Tested Environment Matrix

This repository is tested and supported on the following stack:

Component	Version
OS	Ubuntu 26.04 (Resolute Racoon) / Docker
ROS 2	Lyrical (or Jazzy)
Gazebo	Harmonic
Python	3.12+

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🔧 Hardware Deployment (Real UR5)

This repository has been designed with an abstraction layer to support a physical Universal Robots UR5 manipulator.

A hardware bring-up stub is provided in ur5_real.launch.py. To deploy to physical hardware:

1. Ensure the UR5 controller is connected via Ethernet and the IP is pingable.
2. Install the ROS 2 UR driver: sudo apt install ros-lyrical-ur
3. Uncomment the driver block in ur5_real.launch.py and supply the correct IP.
4. Run: ros2 launch arm_moveit_config ur5_real.launch.py

(Note: Ensure emergency stops are armed and velocity scaling is reduced before executing trajectories on hardware).