ROS Based Six-DOF Robotic Arm Control Through CAN Bus Interface

In this research work we propose a mechanism where six actuator nodes which represent the six degrees of freedom (DOF) of a robotic arm are connected via the Controller Area Network (CAN) bus to forms its communication network and receives commands from a common controller (Raspberry Pi). A simulation environment is created in the Gazebo simulator of host simulator and real time analysis of the robotic arm is done via Rviz. Through the simulation, the robotic arm receives instructions from a joystick integrated to the same host PC. The position of each joint with respect to the command from the joystick is sent over WiFi to the common controller and an indication that the message has been received is shown on hardware using the CAN network setup. The arrangement creates an effective framework for learning the working of complex robotic systems with several DOFs.