Official ROS2 Driver Release for Mitsubishi Electric Industrial Robot MELFA: MELFA ROS2 Driver

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Mitsubishi Electric aims to integrate their MELFA robots into the ROS2 ecosystem, allowing robotics developers and integrators to utilize their industry proven platform seamlessly in ROS-based applications. By developing MELFA ROS2 packages, Mitsubishi Electric seeks to enable developers to leverage on the flexibility, modularity, and extensive support of ROS2 community coupled with proven global hardware support.

MELFA ROS2 Driver is a collaborative effort between ROS-I Consortium Asia Pacific and Mitsubishi Electric Asia. MELFA ROS2 Driver consists of modular components that allow users to interface with the robot’s motion control, state monitoring, and digital/analog I/O operations in ROS2 control framework. This development bridges the gap between Mitsubishi Electric automation hardware and ROS2, providing developers with the tools needed to build, deploy, and manage robotic applications on an industrial platform effectively.

MELFA ROS2 Driver I/O controllers enable cyclic communication between ROS2 and MELFA. Developers can leverage on the IQ platform through MELFA ROS2 Driver to access other Mitsubishi Electric automation products (such as PLC, HMI, motor drives, NC machines), utilize industrial networks (such as CC-Link, PROFINET, EtherCAT, EtherNet/IP, DeviceNet, etc) and explore time sensitive networks (such as CC-Link IE TSN).

MELFA ROS2 Driver is designed for flexibility, supporting various ROS2 packages such as MoveIt2 for motion planning and custom nodes for specialized tasks. Users can access detailed documentation and installation instructions from the official repository to get started or talk to the developers from Mitsubishi Electric on the discussion page

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Check out the MELFA ROS2 Driver promo video, showcasing the seamless integration of traditional automation hardware and ROS2!

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:rocket: Mitsubishi Electric MELFA ROS2 Driver v1.1.0

In our efforts to democratize Mitsubishi Electric Industrial & Collaborative Robots, we’re excited to unveil our latest update to MELFA ROS2 Driver!

This update includes the following features:

:white_check_mark: New ROS2 compatible MELFA robot, RV-80FR: high-payload (up to 80kg or 176lbs). That’s around three mini-refrigerators!

:white_check_mark: All MELFA ROS2 compatible robots are compatible with the oil mist specification (IP67) and clean room specification (ISO class 3).

:white_check_mark: Gazebo-Fortress compatibility: ALL MELFA ROS2 robots can now be simulated in Gazebo-Fortress.

:white_check_mark: Dual travel axis compatibility: All MELFA ROS2 compatible robots will now support ROS2 controlled dual travel axis. This includes articulated robots (6+2 DOF) and SCARA robots (4+2 DOF). The travel axis can be controlled at the same frequency as the robot, ~286Hz. Rotary and linear servos are supported.

:white_check_mark: Expanded GPIO function: MELFA ROS2 Driver provides seven 16-bit ros2_control gpio_controllers that can be operated at ~41Hz by default and up to ~286Hz. That’s 14 bytes of GPIO at~41Hz!

By integrating MELFA robots into ROS2, we’re delivering flexible, modular, and open-source automation, backed by Mitsubishi Electric’s world-class expertise.

:link: Mitsubishi Electric GitHub page - Mitsubishi Electric Asia · GitHub

:link: ROS-I YouTube Video:https://youtu.be/RP6lIamz9-8?si=uptpiM7EOU7fA4A7

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