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ROS 2 onboarding

Connect your robot to Kinex through its existing ROS 2 stack.

Reference onboarding video

Supported setup

Use your robot’s existing ROS 2 installation. Kinex runs ROS drivers in a separate process with the matching ROS environment and Python interpreter—for example, Jazzy on Ubuntu 24.04 with Python 3.12, or Humble on Ubuntu 22.04 with Python 3.10. Onboarding handles the additional compatibility setup needed for ROS interpreters older than Python 3.11.

Before onboarding, install Kinex and open a robot workspace.

Where ROS 2 fits

ROS 2 connects through Kinex’s device layer. Adapters translate between Kinex device operations and ROS interfaces for joint trajectories, velocity commands, cameras and IMUs.

Where ROS 2 fits in Kinex The agent loads skills and calls tools or devices. The onboard-ros2 skill prepares a driver bundle. Within the device layer, the Kinex driver uses bundled ROS adapters and owns an rclpy node. That node exchanges commands and feedback with the robot's existing ROS 2 drivers and controllers, which connect to the hardware. Kinex Agent Plan · reason Pick tool/device Read results Skills Instructions, procedures onboard-ros2 · calibration · verification Tools Executable perception, computation, control locate_object_3d · servo · calib_sample Devices Typed interfaces, profiles, drivers arm · camera · mobile base Kinex driver + ROS adapters Own ROS node (rclpy) Robot’s ROS 2 stack Existing drivers and controller nodes Topics · services · actions Robot hardware Arms · mobile bases · cameras · sensors Load Call Result Call Result Calls State Commands State / images Control Feedback Where ROS 2 fits in Kinex The agent loads skills and calls tools or devices. The onboard-ros2 skill prepares a driver bundle. Within the device layer, the Kinex driver uses bundled ROS adapters and owns an rclpy node. That node exchanges commands and feedback with the robot's existing ROS 2 drivers and controllers, which connect to the hardware. Kinex Agent Plan · reason · read results Skills Instructions, procedures onboard-ros2 · calibration · verification Tools Executable perception, computation, control locate_object_3d · servo · calib_sample Devices Typed interfaces, profiles, drivers arm · camera · mobile base Kinex driver + ROS adapters Own ROS node (rclpy) Robot’s ROS 2 stack Existing drivers and controller nodes Topics · services · actions Robot hardware Arms · mobile bases · cameras · sensors Load skills Call tools/devices Results Calls State Commands State / images Control Feedback
Onboarding prepares the bundle; the loaded driver owns its ROS node.

What onboarding handles

The standard onboarding workflow uses the onboard-ros2 skill to:

  • Reuse packages. Prefer installed ROS packages, then official apt packages. Build from source only for a specific need or your request.
  • Resolve dependencies. If installation requires sudo, provide the commands and target host for you to run them on.
  • Prepare drivers. Write drivers and ROS configuration in each device’s directory, reusing existing nodes and a shared ROS backend in .kinex/lib/ where appropriate.
  • Verify interfaces. Check live ROS interfaces and report observations and failed checks. Apply measured camera calibration updates to device profiles.

Start the robot’s ROS stack before loading devices; unloading a Kinex device leaves the stack running.

Continue with calibration for the measurements your task needs.

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