UR Robotic Arm with Robotiq 2-Finger Gripper for ROS 2

📖 Related Blog Post: For behind-the-scenes details and the full development journey, check out the companion Medium article: 👉 👉 How I’m Building an Autonomous Pick-and-Place System with ROS 2 Jazzy and Gazebo Harmonic

The blog dives into simulation setup, robotic control, MoveIt Task Constructor, and lessons learned—perfect if you're curious about the engineering side or want to replicate the project from scratch.

This project integrates the Robotiq 2-Finger Gripper with a Universal Robots UR3 arm using ROS 2 Jazzy and Gazebo Harmonic. It includes URDF models, ROS 2 control configuration, simulation launch files, and control scripts.

✅ Note: This setup uses fixed mimic joint configuration for the Robotiq gripper to support simulation in newer Gazebo (Harmonic). Only the primary finger_joint receives commands—mimic joints automatically follow.

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Demo

📦 Installation

Make sure you have ROS 2 Jazzy and Gazebo Harmonic installed.

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/darshmenon/UR3_ROS2_PICK_AND_PLACE.git
cd UR3_ROS2_PICK_AND_PLACE

2. Install Dependencies

sudo apt install ros-jazzy-rviz2 \
                 ros-jazzy-joint-state-publisher \
                 ros-jazzy-robot-state-publisher \
                 ros-jazzy-ros2-control \
                 ros-jazzy-ros2-controllers \
                 ros-jazzy-controller-manager \
                 ros-jazzy-joint-trajectory-controller \
                 ros-jazzy-position-controllers \
                 ros-jazzy-gz-ros2-control \
                 ros-jazzy-ros2controlcli \
                 ros-jazzy-gz-sim

3. Build the Workspace

cd ~/your_ros2_ws  # Replace with your workspace path
colcon build --symlink-install
source install/setup.bash

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🧩 MoveIt Task Constructor Setup

To enable advanced pick-and-place planning with MoveIt 2, this project supports MoveIt Task Constructor (MTC).
Instead of duplicating the full setup process, we've included a detailed guide in a separate submodule:

📄 Follow the MTC installation and patching guide here:
ur_mtc_pick_place_demo/README.md

This includes:

• Cloning the correct MTC branch and commit
• Installing dependencies
• Fixes for planning scene execution issues
• Rebuild instructions

Once complete, you'll be ready to run scripted and interactive pick-and-place pipelines using MTC!

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🚀 Launch Instructions

Launch Full Simulation in Gazebo

ros2 launch ur_gazebo ur.gazebo.launch.py

Launch RViz Visualization (UR3 + Gripper)

ros2 launch ur_description view_ur.launch.py ur_type:=ur3

Launch Gripper Visualization Alone

ros2 launch robotiq_2finger_grippers robotiq_2f_85_gripper_visualization/launch/test_2f_85_model.launch.py

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🤖 Move the Arm from CLI

Send a simple trajectory:

ros2 action send_goal /arm_controller/follow_joint_trajectory control_msgs/action/FollowJointTrajectory \
'{
  "trajectory": {
    "joint_names": [
      "shoulder_pan_joint",
      "shoulder_lift_joint",
      "elbow_joint",
      "wrist_1_joint",
      "wrist_2_joint",
      "wrist_3_joint"
    ],
    "points": [
      {
        "positions": [0.0, -1.57, 1.57, 0.0, 1.57, 0.0],
        "time_from_start": { "sec": 2, "nanosec": 0 }
      }
    ]
  }
}'

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🔁 Run Arm-Gripper Automation Script

Run a full pick-return-release loop:

python3 ~/UR3_ROS2_PICK_AND_PLACE/ur_system_tests/scripts/arm_gripper_loop_controller.py

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📝 MTC Demo Script

To run the full MTC demo with the UR3 and Robotiq gripper, execute the following steps:

1. Make the Bash Script Executable

chmod +x ~/UR3_ROS2_PICK_AND_PLACE/ur_mtc_pick_place_demo/scripts/robot.sh

2. Run the Script

Execute the script to launch the complete simulation:

~/UR3_ROS2_PICK_AND_PLACE/ur_mtc_pick_place_demo/scripts/robot.sh

This script will:

• Launch the Gazebo simulation with the UR3 robot and gripper.
• Launch MoveIt 2 with the necessary configurations for pick-and-place tasks.
• Adjust the camera position in the simulation.
• Start the Pick-and-Place demo with MTC.

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📸 Screenshots

UR3 with Robotiq Gripper in RViz

Robotiq Gripper Close-up

Simulation in Gazebo

RViz Overview

mtc Overview

mtc Overview

mtc Pipline

loop

🤝 Contributing

Feel free to open pull requests or issues if you have improvements or bug reports.