ROS Universal Robots Web Human-Machnie Interface

Within this project, a web-based HMI (Human-Machine Interface) was created. The basic function of this work is to easily control individual joints of collaborative robots from the Universal Robots stable using mainly ROS (Robot Operating System). The system also enables web browser visualization of Rviz. The project offers a high degree of modularity and offer to you make your own modifications by your preferences

➡️ It can be easily extended to other robots from other manufacturers.

Software
------------------------------------
|
+ Backend
+ ---------
| ROS version Noetic(Tested), Melodic(Tested)
|
| SERVER
|   - FLASK  version 2.2.2 (Option1)
|   - NODEJS version 18.12.1 (Option2)
|
+ Frontend
+ ---------
| JAVASCRIPT
|   - roslibjs version 1.1.0
|       - ros3djs + dependencies
|   - jQuery version 3.6.2
|   - bootstrap version 5.0.2
|   - js-cookie version 3.0.1
| CSS
|   - bootstrap version 5.0.2
| HTML

The system is designed so that especially the basic control logic is implemented on the client side, so the system can be easily adapted to any existing web framework / server.

If anyone is more conservative, he can override the system with more server-side logic. However, this choice comes at the price of less modularity.

Hierarchy

There were two alternative paths used in this project, using python flask or javascript node server. Depending on your preference you can choose which framework to use or simply modify for a completely different web framework. The main ROS logic is implied on the client's side.

How to use and install it, look in the README file in the Server and ROS folder.

Server
└───flask
└─────app.py
└───node
└─────app.js

ROS
└───ur_web_control
└─────ur_web_control.launch

🔴 Server e.g. Node.js or uWSGI/Gunicorn + Flask

🔵 URx collaborative robot

🟢 ROS Server e.g. Nvidia Xavier, Raspberry Pi

Video

For testing in the I4C lab, we chose Nvidia Xavier as the controller, running the Robot Operating System (ROS). A desktop computer was used as a server.

Click on button -> Youtube video: Robot Operating System (ROS) Universal Robots Web Human-Machine Interface (HMI)

Channel: Roman Parak

Note

Switch logic on client side in robot_connect.js relies on logs /rosout statements (URx bringup, Moveit). Please if anyone can think of a better solution please let me know.

The solution was mainly based on rostopic due to simplicity than rosservices. Rosservices would mainly be used in real deployment.

Implementing the solution in node.js was due to a simple local server, where the original project designed in python flask was freezes the project to static files using the Frozen-Flask library.