NEXTAGE OPEN / Hiro by Kawada Industries

ROS Software Maintainer: TORK

The NEXTAGE OPEN / Hiro (HiroNXO) is a manipulation platform built by Kawada Industries. The HiroNXO software system is written in hrpsys (OpenRTM-based controller), and its programming interface is available in ROS as well. As such, most of HiroNXO capabilities are available via ROS interfaces.

For those who already own HiroNXO robot / who are thinking about getting the robot / who are just interested in using it, we recommend starting with its opensource software tutorial series.

This video by Robophil might help you to overview hardware.

Contents

NEXTAGE OPEN / Hiro by Kawada Industries

Available ROS distro

ROS Indigo (recommended)
ROS Hydro (end-of-life. For existing users, see this if you want to keep using Hydro)
ROS Groovy (end-of-life)

Tutorials

Please see the the robot's opensource software tutorial series.

Support

Kawada should ship with infrastructure support for the HiroNXO while TORK supports its software. Visit the website for business info for the software support.

Library Overview

1. Basic Configuration

Component	ROS package/stack
Robot-specific Messages	(None)
Robot-specific Services	(None)
Robot model (URDF)	nextage_description
Machine configuration	(Done in hrpsys)

2. Hardware Drivers and Simulation

Component	ROS package/stack
Actuator Drivers	hrpsys
Sensor Drivers	See "Sensor Drivers" below
Simulation (3D)	openhrp3
Tool changer (chuck, suction or anything)	nextage_ros_bridge

3. High-Level Capabilities

Component	ROS package/stack
Kinematics	Delegated to hrpsys
Arm motion planning	nextage_moveit_config
Manipulation	nextage_moveit_config
Perception	OpenCV, pcl
Task executive	executive_smach
Web operation interface	rwt_moveit

Web operation interface running on Chrome on Android tablet

4. Sensor Drivers

Following ROS sensor drivers are (not limited to) proven to work with HiroNXO:

Dynpick force sensor
Nitta force sensor (API available via hironx_ros_bridge package)
IDS Imaging UEYE embedded camera
Kinect via freenect_stack, openni_camera
Leptrino f/t sensor

Video. This "stampit" demo was presented at IROS2013 as a proof of concept. The application program was written in a week using python based on MoveIt!.