ROS Net F/T Driver

netft_driver is a native ROS driver for ATI Ethernet Net F/T and Ethernet Axia force/torque sensors. It supports a standalone ROS 1 or ROS 2 node and a ROS 2 ros2_control sensor hardware plugin.

Features

• Publishes calibrated geometry_msgs/WrenchStamped data in N and Nm.
• Reports connection, sequence, receive-rate, and device-status diagnostics.
• Provides an explicit software-bias service.
• Integrates with the standard ROS 2 force-torque sensor broadcaster.
• Carries a reviewed private snapshot of the netft-cpp acquisition core.

Supported ROS distributions

ROS distribution	Standalone driver	ros2_control plugin	Support policy
ROS 2 Lyrical	Yes	Yes	Supported
ROS 2 Kilted	Yes	Yes	Supported
ROS 2 Jazzy	Yes	Yes	Supported
ROS 2 Humble	Yes	Yes	Compatibility
ROS 2 Rolling	Yes	Yes	Development
ROS 1 Noetic*	Yes	N/A	Legacy source support

* ROS 1 Noetic is end-of-life and supported from source only.

Installation

ROS 2

Replace lyrical with another supported ROS 2 distribution when required.

source /opt/ros/lyrical/setup.bash
mkdir -p ~/netft_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/netft/ros-netft.git ~/netft_ws/src/netft_driver
cd ~/netft_ws
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y
colcon build --packages-select netft_driver
source install/setup.bash

ROS 1 Noetic

source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash
mkdir -p ~/netft_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/netft/ros-netft.git ~/netft_ws/src/netft_driver
cd ~/netft_ws
rosdep update --include-eol-distros
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y
catkin_make
source devel/setup.bash

See the installation guide for prerequisites and package availability.

Quick start

ATI RDT permits one UDP client. Stop other RDT clients before starting the driver. The examples use 192.168.1.1, ATI's factory-default static address; replace it with the address assigned to your sensor.

Standalone driver

ROS 2:

ros2 launch netft_driver netft.launch.py sensor_ip:=192.168.1.1
ros2 topic echo --once /netft/wrench

ROS 1:

roslaunch netft_driver netft.launch sensor_ip:=192.168.1.1
rostopic echo -n 1 /netft/wrench

The default bias service is /netft/bias. Bias changes the measurement zero; call it only when the sensor and connected mechanism are in a safe state.

ros2_control

The plugin class is netft_driver/NetFTHardwareInterface. Include the installed Xacro macro in the robot description managed by your controller manager:

<xacro:include filename="$(find netft_driver)/urdf/netft.ros2_control.xacro"/>
<xacro:netft_ros2_control
  name="wrist_netft_hardware"
  sensor_name="wrist_ft"
  sensor_ip="192.168.1.1"
  sensor_port="49152"
  receive_timeout="0.1"
  activation_timeout="2.0"/>

Configure and spawn force_torque_sensor_broadcaster through the robot's existing controller manager. The repository also installs netft_ros2_control.launch.py as a minimal single-sensor example.

Documentation

• Standalone ROS driver tutorial
• ros2_control tutorial
• Standalone interface reference
• ros2_control reference
• Diagnostics and lifecycle
• Security and safety

Automatic sensor configuration is enabled by default. Validate the discovered calibration, units, status, freshness, and finite values before using wrench data for control. This driver is not a safety-rated control path.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development environments, tests, hardware authorization, and native-core synchronization. Report security issues through SECURITY.md.

License

The repository is licensed under Apache-2.0. The private netft-cpp snapshot retains its upstream license at src/core/LICENSE.