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3_Sunrise_FRI

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kovacsge11 edited this page Aug 5, 2026 · 10 revisions

Sunrise driver (FRI)

Setup

Client side

  • It is recommended to use the driver on a real-time capable client machine (further information about setting up the PREEMPT_RT patch can be found here).
  • Set a fixed IP in the subnet of the controller for the real-time machine.

Controller side

  • Upload the robot application under robot_application/src to the controller using Sunrise Workbench. The driver only supports Sunrise 1.X.

Configuration

Startup configuration

The following configuration files are available in the config directory of the package:

  • driver_config.yaml: : contains runtime parameters of the robot_manager node
  • ros2_controller_config.yaml: contains the controller types for every controller name. Should be only modified if a different controller is to be used.
  • configuration files for specific controllers, for further information, see the documentation of the given controller
  • gpio_config.xacro: contains the I/O setup of the system, but this was not tested yet

IP configuration

The IP address of robot controller must be provided as a launch argument. For further information see section launch arguments. Please note that currently the driver only works using the KLI interface of the robot controller, KONI is not yet supported.

Runtime parameters

The parameters in the driver configuration file can be also changed during runtime using the parameter interface of the robot_manager node:

  • cycle_time (integer): this parameter defines the send rate in milliseconds (with which the controller sends robot state updates). It must be between 1 and 10 for control and can be only changed in inactive and configuring states.
  • receive_multiplier (integer): this parameter defines the answer rate factor (the client should sends commands in every receive_multiplier*cycle_time milliseconds). It must be at least 1 and can be only changed in inactive and configuring states.
  • control_mode: The enum value of the control mode should be given, which updates the ControlMode and ClientCommandMode parameters of FRI. It cannot be changed in active state.
  • joint_damping, joint_stiffness (double vectors): these parameters change the stiffness and damping attributes of joint impedance control mode. The updated values are sent to the hardware interface using the joint_group_impedance_controller to adapt to conventions, but it is not possible to change them in active state due to the constraints of FRI. (Therefore the joint_group_impedance_controller is deactivated at driver activation.)
  • position_controller_name: The name of the controller (string) that controls the position interface of the robot. It can't be changed in active state.
  • torque_controller_name: The name of the controller (string) that controls the effort interface of the robot. It can't be changed in active state.

Usage

Starting the driver

  1. On the controller, start the uploaded robot application (ROS2_Control).

  2. To start the driver, two launch file are available, with and without rviz. To launch (without rviz), run

    ros2 launch kuka_sunrise_fri_driver startup.launch.py controller_ip:=0.0.0.0 client_ip:=0.0.0.0

    This starts the 3 core components of every driver (described in the Non-real-time interface section of the project overview) and the following controllers:

  3. After successful startup, the robot_manager node has to be activated to start the cyclic communication with the robot controller (before this only a collapsed robot is visible in rviz):

    ros2 lifecycle set robot_manager configure
ros2 lifecycle set robot_manager activate

On successful activation the brakes of the robot will be released and external control is started using the requested control mode. To test moving the robot, the rqt_joint_trajectory_controller is not recommended, use the launch file in the moveit_example package instead (usage is described in the Additional packages section of the project overview).

Launch arguments

Both launch files support the following argument:

  • controller_ip: KLI IP address of the robot controller
  • client_ip: IP address of the client PC
  • client_port: port of the client machine (default: 30200)
  • robot_model: defines which LBR iiwa robot to use. Available options: lbr_iiwa14_r820 (default)
  • mode: if set to 'mock', the KukaMockHardwareInterface will be used instead of the KukaFRIHardwareInterface. This enables trying out the driver without actual hardware.
  • namespace: adds a namespace to all nodes and controllers of the driver, and modifies the prefix argument of the robot description macro to namespace_
  • x, y, z: define the position of base_link relative to the world frame in meters (default: [0, 0, 0])
  • roll, pitch, yaw: define the orientation of base_link relative to the world frame in radians (default: [0, 0, 0])
  • roundtrip_time: The roundtrip time (in microseconds) to be enforced by the KUKA mock hardware interface, (defaults to 5000 us, only used if mode is set to 'mock')
  • controller_config: the location of the ros2_control configuration file (defaults to kuka_sunrise_fri_driver/config/ros2_controller_config.yaml)
  • jtc_config: the location of the configuration file for the joint_trajectory_controller (defaults to kuka_sunrise_fri_driver/config/joint_trajectory_controller_config.yaml)
  • jic_config: the location of the configuration file for the joint_impedance_controller (defaults to kuka_sunrise_fri_driver/config/joint_impedance_controller_config.yaml)
  • ec_config: the location of the configuration file for the effort_controller (defaults to kuka_sunrise_fri_driver/config/effort_controller_config.yaml)
  • etb_config: the location of the configuration file for the external_torque_broadcaster (defaults to kuka_sunrise_fri_driver/config/external_torque_broadcaster._config.yaml)
  • rt_core: CPU core index for taskset pinning of the realtime control thread. (default: -1 = do not pin)
  • rt_prio: The realtime priority of the thread that runs the control loop [0-99] (default: 70)
  • non_rt_cores: Comma-separated CPU core indices for taskset pinning of non-RT threads (e.g. '2,3,4'). Leave empty to disable pinning. (defaults to empty string)
  • lock_memory: Whether to lock memory of the control loop with mlockall to avoid paging (defaults to true)

Note

The rt_core and rt_prio, parameters are not applied to asynchronous hardware interfaces. For async hardware configuration, use the async_thread_priority and async_affinity xacro arguments instead.

The startup_with_rviz.launch.py additionally contains one argument:

  • rviz_config: the location of the rviz configuration file (defaults to kuka_resources/config/view_6_axis_urdf.rviz)

Details about the mode parameter can be viewed in the kuka_robot_descriptions README.

Stopping external control

To stop external control, all components have to be deactivated with ros2 lifecycle set robot_manager deactivate

BEWARE, that this is a non-realtime process including lifecycle management, so the connection is not terminated immediately, in cases where an abrupt stop is needed, the safety stop of the Teach Pendant should be used! (This will also deactivate all components to allow reactivation without a restart.)

Known issues and limitations

  • I/O control was not tested
  • Cartesian modes are not yet supported

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