Getting Started Building Your Robot:

  • Download the free robot build manual → Manual

    Read chapter 1, bill of materials, and make sure you have everything you need to get started.

    Read the overview section to learn some details and techniques for building your robot.

    Read chapter 2 and follow the detailed, simple-to-follow steps in assembling your robot.

     

  • Download the Teensy Control Board firmware here.

  • Download the robot control software for your PC here.

  • Read chapter 7 and watch this video on loading the software.

    SOFTWARE
    SOFTWARE
    • WATCH THIS VIDEO ON TESTING LIMIT SWITCHES AND ENCODERS TO MAKE SURE THEY ARE WORKING • WATCH THIS VIDEO ON CALIBRATING YOUR ROBOT
    • WATCH THIS VIDEO ON PROGRAMMING YOUR ROBOT
    ADDITIONAL INFO:
    • IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN LEARNING ABOUT HOW THE ROBOT KINEMATICS WORK WATCH THIS VIDEO
    • IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT HOW THE ROBOT IO AND GRIPPERS WORK WATCH THIS VIDEO
    • IF YOU WANT TO LEARN HOW TO GET YOUR ROBOT TO COMMUNICATE WITH A PROGRAMABLE LOGIC CONTROLLER (PLC) WATCH THIS VIDEO
    • IF YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT PROGRAMMING AND USING THE SOURCE CODE CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO
    HERE IS THE COMPLETE LIST OF TUTORIAL VIDEOS ON THE ANNIN ROBOTICS YOUTUBE CHANNEL:

Developed by Yifei Chang.

AR4 Robot ROS Driver (Robot Operating System)

ROS 2 driver for the AR4 6-DOF robot arm.

Tested with ROS 2 Jazzy on Ubuntu 24.04. Also has branch for Humble here.

Supports:

  • AR4 MK1 (Original version), MK2, MK3
  • AR4 servo gripper

Features:

  • MoveIt control
  • Gazebo simulation
Access Ros 2 Software on GitHub Repository
Add-on Features and Capabilities
The following projects showcases additional features and capabilities built on top of this driver:

Developed by Ekumen Labs

AR4 Robot ROS 2 Software (Robot Operating System)

Unlock the full potential of your AR4 Robot with this comprehensive, open-source ROS 2 software stack. This package provides everything you need to control the AR4 robot and run high-fidelity simulations in leading environments like Gazebo, NVIDIA Isaac Sim, and MuJoCo.

(Note: The Isaac Sim bringup package is currently under active development.)

High-Performance Simulation with NVIDIA Isaac Sim

Accelerate your AR4 development cycle with photorealistic simulation and AI-powered perception using NVIDIA Isaac Sim. This ROS 2 package, developed by Ekumen, includes a dedicated bringup configuration for Isaac Sim, allowing you to train and test reinforcement learning models, computer vision algorithms, and complex tasks in a physically accurate virtual world.

  • Launch in a Single Command: Use the provided Docker image to start a simulated AR4 instance in Isaac Sim quickly.

  • Leverage NVIDIA Omniverse: Benefit from the powerful Omniverse platform for building scalable, physically accurate simulations.

  • Ideal for AI Workloads: Perfect for developing and testing pick-and-place, assembly, and other automation tasks powered by AI.

Access Ros 2 Software on GitHub Repository
Features
  • Complete ROS 2 Integration: Full support for ROS 2 Humble and Iron, enabling modern robotics application development.
  • Multi-Simulator Support: Test and validate your code in simulated environments before deploying to hardware.
  • Real Hardware Control: Robust drivers and bringup packages for seamless operation with the physical AR4 robot.
  • MoveIt Motion Planning: Integrated with MoveIt 2 for advanced motion planning, manipulation, and collision avoidance.
  • Dockerized Development: Pre-configured Docker images ensure a consistent and easy-to-setup development environment, regardless of your host system.
Upload your Photo