Development of a simulation platform and testing of a 5 degrees of freedom ReactorX 150 robotic arm manipulator
Abstract
The University of South-Eastern Norway recently purchased several units of the Trossen Robotics ReactorX-150 educational robots, enabling campus students’ access to some great robots for education and research purposes. The same possibility could be offered to online students with the access to a simulation platform for the ReactorX-150.
The primary objective of this thesis is to create a simulation platform for the ReactorX-150, integrating it with ROS on a Linux platform. This platform aims to support essential tasks such as position/trajectory control and the application of forward and inverse kinematics. Key technologies for this task include ROS in combination with Gazebo, RViz, and MoveIt.
With comprehensive testing and documentation of the ReactorX-150 and its control packages, the thesis has resulted in numerous guides for setting up the simulation platform for the ReactorX-150, providing students the ability to implement the simulation platform to their computer from any corner of the world.