franka_test_ros

ROS 1 codebase for Franka Panda kitting experiments. The main package is franka_kitting_controller, a ros_control controller that publishes robot state, detects contact with SMS-CUSUM, controls the Franka gripper during grasp trials, and records trial data to rosbag/CSV.

What Is In This Repository

Path	Use
franka_kitting_controller/	Main package. Contains the kitting controller, logger node, custom messages, configs, launch files, and tests.
sms_cusum/	Contact and secure-grasp detection algorithm. The controller uses the C++ headers in sms_cusum/cpp/include. Python tools are included for offline validation and plotting.
franka_control/	Franka hardware control node and state controller. Use this to start the real robot control loop.
franka_hw/	Franka ros_control hardware interfaces used by franka_control and the kitting controller.
franka_gripper/	Franka gripper action/message definitions. The kitting controller uses these types and connects to the gripper through libfranka.
franka_msgs/	Franka messages, services, and actions required by the control packages.
kitting_bags/	Recorded trial bags, CSV files, plots, and metadata from tests. Treat this as experiment data.

Prerequisites

Use a ROS 1 catkin setup with ROS Noetic or Melodic.

Install or provide:

• libfranka 0.8 or 0.9
• franka_description from an external Franka ROS installation, needed by franka_control.launch for the Panda URDF
• ROS packages for controller_manager, controller_interface, hardware_interface, combined_robot_hw, joint_limits_interface, pluginlib, realtime_tools, actionlib, rosbag, topic_tools, control_msgs, sensor_msgs, geometry_msgs, tf, and tf2_msgs

The repository already includes the local Franka packages needed by the kitting controller: franka_control, franka_hw, franka_gripper, and franka_msgs.

Build

Put this repository inside a catkin workspace source directory:

mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src
cd ~/catkin_ws/src
# clone or copy this repository here

Install dependencies and build:

cd ~/catkin_ws
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y
catkin_make
source devel/setup.bash

With catkin_tools, build the kitting package and its dependencies:

cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin build franka_kitting_controller
source devel/setup.bash

Run The Kitting Controller

Start the Franka robot control loop first:

roslaunch franka_control franka_control.launch robot_ip:=<ROBOT_IP> load_gripper:=false

Use load_gripper:=false. The kitting controller opens its own direct franka::Gripper connection, so franka_gripper_node should not be running at the same time.

In a second terminal, source the workspace and launch the kitting controller:

source ~/catkin_ws/devel/setup.bash
roslaunch franka_kitting_controller kitting_state_controller.launch robot_ip:=<ROBOT_IP>

The controller loads franka_kitting_controller/config/kitting_state_controller.yaml, spawns kitting_state_controller, publishes state data, and waits for a trial command.

Run A Trial

The main command topic is:

/kitting_controller/state_cmd

It uses the message type:

franka_kitting_controller/KittingGripperCommand

Manual mode uses three commands: BASELINE, CLOSING, then GRASPING.

# 1. Prepare and collect baseline
rostopic pub /kitting_controller/state_cmd franka_kitting_controller/KittingGripperCommand \
  "{command: 'BASELINE', open_gripper: true}" --once

# 2. Close the gripper until contact is detected
rostopic pub /kitting_controller/state_cmd franka_kitting_controller/KittingGripperCommand \
  "{command: 'CLOSING'}" --once

# 3. Start the force ramp and evaluation sequence
rostopic pub /kitting_controller/state_cmd franka_kitting_controller/KittingGripperCommand \
  "{command: 'GRASPING'}" --once

Automatic mode runs the same sequence from one command:

rostopic pub /kitting_controller/state_cmd franka_kitting_controller/KittingGripperCommand \
  "{command: 'AUTO', open_gripper: true, auto_delay: 3.0}" --once

The controller publishes the current trial state on:

/kitting_controller/state

Typical states are START, UNKNOWN, BASELINE, CLOSING, CONTACT, GRASP_1, GRASP_2, UPLIFT, EVALUATE, SUCCESS, and FAILED.

Record Trial Data

Launch the controller with recording enabled:

roslaunch franka_kitting_controller kitting_state_controller.launch \
  robot_ip:=<ROBOT_IP> \
  record:=true \
  object_name:=<OBJECT_NAME> \
  base_directory:=/path/to/kitting_bags

The logger starts automatically, records one bag per trial, and exports CSV files when a trial stops. If you want new data saved in this repository, point base_directory at this repo's kitting_bags/ directory.

Stop or abort recording manually with:

rostopic pub /kitting_controller/record_control std_msgs/String "data: 'STOP'" --once
rostopic pub /kitting_controller/record_control std_msgs/String "data: 'ABORT'" --once

Terminal states SUCCESS and FAILED also stop recording automatically.

Tune Parameters

Controller parameters live in:

franka_kitting_controller/config/kitting_state_controller.yaml

Logger parameters live in:

franka_kitting_controller/config/kitting_logger.yaml

Most per-trial command fields can override YAML defaults. For example:

rostopic pub /kitting_controller/state_cmd franka_kitting_controller/KittingGripperCommand \
  "{command: 'GRASPING', f_min: 3.0, f_max: 70.0, f_step: 3.0}" --once

Test And Develop

Run the kitting controller tests from the catkin workspace:

catkin_make run_tests_franka_kitting_controller
catkin_test_results build

With catkin_tools:

catkin build franka_kitting_controller --catkin-make-args run_tests
catkin_test_results build

The kitting controller tests use mocked handles and do not require robot hardware. Some franka_hw tests require franka_description because they load the Panda URDF.

More Documentation

• franka_kitting_controller/README.md explains the controller state machine, topics, messages, force-ramp behavior, logger behavior, and test structure.
• sms_cusum/README.md explains the SMS-CUSUM algorithm, C++ headers, Python validation tools, and detection parameters.