ROS for Baxter

Ian McMahon
Baxter @ ROS Best Practices
[10/14/14]

© 2014 Rethink Robotics, Inc. All rights reserved.

PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL

Baxter: a Platform for 

Manufacturing and Research

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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Two Sides of Baxter

• Collaborative Robot
• Safe to be around people
• Even undergrads!
• Two arms, sensors, display...
• Accessible



… and Research Friendly!


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© 2014 Rethink Robotics, Inc. All rights reserved.

PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL

Research Areas

• Wide range of Research

• Real world target

MIT

http://sdk.rethinkrobotics.com/wiki/Research

RPI
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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL

Collaborative Teleoperation
Luis F. C. Figueredo

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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
One-Robot-Fits-All* Platform

▪ Full development platform

▪ Don’t have to develop a robot ROS
to test your gripper
– Focus on your research
▪ Stand-alone system

User
Application
!
workstation

 *Deep Learning for Detecting Robotic Grasps, Ian Lenz, Honglak Lee, Ashutosh
Saxena. 7
© 2014 Rethink Robotics, Inc. All rights reserved.

PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL

Baxter Software Framework

▪ ROS is our API layer

▪ Enables the best interface for each case

User
User Dev Machine User Code
Application
ROS Libraries

ROS

Controls States
Robot Actuators Sensors
Interface
Embedded
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© 2014 Rethink Robotics, Inc. All rights reserved.

PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL

Baxter SDK

Core SDK
▪ Consists of several packages
▪ Layered functionality
▪ Lives in catkin workspace
▪ Either exists on workstation or via SSH
▪ Written with Python + ROS

+
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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Baxter SDK

Core SDK !
▪ baxter baxter meta-package
▪ baxter_common URDF, meshes, and messages
▪ baxter_interface interface classes and joint action server
▪ baxter_tools operational tools and robot enable
▪ baxter_examples many example programs
! !
Additional Packages !
▪ baxter_pykdl forward / inverse kinematics with KDL
▪ moveit_robots SRDF and launch files for Baxter and MoveIt
▪ baxter_simulator Baxter’s Gazebo implementation

All available on GitHub!

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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Baxter’s Series Elastic Actuators

Image Credit: 

machinedesign.com
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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Collision Avoidance
+ Collision Detection
Robot Description: /robot/armnav_robot_description

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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Arm Controllers (in Python)

!
▪Joint Position

▪Joint Velocity

▪Joint Torque

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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Arm Controllers: Position

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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Arm Controllers: Velocity

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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Arm Controllers: Torque

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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
MoveIt! + 

Joint Trajectory Action Server

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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Baxter + Gazebo

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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Baxter + Gazebo

Credit: Dave Coleman

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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
The SDK Wiki:

sdk.rethinkrobotics.com

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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Baxter Google Group:

groups.google.com/a/rethinkrobotics.com/forum

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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Baxter and ROS: The takeaway

ROS is more than just a protocol

▪ Data Collection
▪ Visualization
▪ Simulation
▪ Ecosystem
▪ Modular Packages / Functionality
▪ Collaboration
▪ Community

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© 2014 Rethink Robotics, Inc. All rights reserved.

PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL

In Conclusion:
Baxter loves the ROS Community!

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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Amazon picking challenge!

@ ICRA 2015
A Baxter will be provided!

$26K in prizes!
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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Thank you!

© 2014 Rethink Robotics, Inc. All rights reserved. ‹#›

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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Any Questions?

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PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL