MoveIt and ROS integration

Thanks for the quick reply.

I am just starting to learn how ROS works. To my limited knowledge, I would assume the integration would be accomplished through serial communications with the arduino, i.e. publisher and subscriptor etc. I understand that ROS would replace some of the python code function. I am still trying to figure out where firmware hex code, driver code and your original python code stand in the whole scheme. Can you elaborate a little bit how this could be accomplished in your mind and what work would be needed. Hopefully some capable individuals among us in the community could chip in to get this accomplished. Thanks again.

Thanks for the guidance.

"Arduino with open-dobot firmware on the board accepts custom commands that are described in DobotDriver. DobotSdk provides high-level functions hiding all the comms complexity behind. All you need to tell SDK to do is where to move the arm."

I assume the commands are in the form of serial command according to DobotDriver coming from the ROS node. DobotSdk interpret the command to form a pose. In turn, Arduino board sends back serial communication about the pose to ROS node. ROS gives next command through the node, repeat the above cycle. Am I understand this correctly?

Great. That made it very clear to me from where to begin.

I welcome others to join the efforts to make this project a reality. The ultimate goal is to make this arduino control system a modular system so you can modify the type of motors used and arm design in the SDK (this topic should belong to another thread), then plug the system to ROS and explore the immense possibilities ROS can bring in.

Thank you MAX for leading the way.

Except you don't necessarily need ROSserial. You will need something to translate ROS messages to SDK calls whether you employ ROSserial or not. I think involving ROSserial would only complicate things for you. So I'd recommend to:
1. play with publishing/subscribing to topics wiki.ros.org/ROS/Tutorials/WritingPublisherSubscriber%28python%29 or
2. play with services wiki.ros.org/ROS/Tutorials/WritingPublisherSubscriber%28python%29 or

Topics would be preferred as you don't need a response from SDK as long you publish current pose.

The approach on the video is not the best, I guess it's just a simple try to get something working. There are plenty of resources on ROS. If you want to make it right you'll have to go through wiki.ros.org/urdf/Tutorials which has TF as prerequisite.
Have a look at github.com/uArm-Developer/UArmForROS which has all the bits and pieces to start. uarm_python.py is effectively replaced by DobotSDK and adapted accordingly. The interface is primitive but that's a good start to get closer to MoveIt.

If your goal is to just send coordinates where to move to without any fancy trajectory planning (i.e. if there are no obstacles to avoid when moving from current location to destination) then you don't need ROS at all. I'm not mentioning the "unreachable pose" problem as the arm has only 3 joints and limits that are quite simple to compute for which MoveIt is an overkill.

Thanks for Max's introduction! It makes thing clear more!!!

I do hope Dobot team can make more contribution to integrate Dobot into ROS!

This is driver github.com/maxosprojects/open-dobot/blob/master/application/python/dobot/DobotDriver.py
This is sdk github.com/maxosprojects/open-dobot/blob/master/application/python/dobot/DobotSDK.py

Driver provides a python interface to fpga that is in the control box.
Sdk provides high-level functions like "moveto" and executes them via the driver.