ROBOWORKS Pickerbot Pro Pick and Drop Mobile Robot on Mecanum Wheels
Product Usage Instructions
Key Components and Hardware
- ROS2 Controller: NVIDIA Jetson Orin
- The NVIDIA Jetson Orin controller comes with 2x CSI camera ports, 9-19V input, and GPIO Pin #1. Do not flash the software to maintain compatibility with other components.
- Sensing System: LiDAR & Depth Camera
- The Pickerbot Pro includes a Leishen M10 LSLiDAR for mapping and navigational capabilities, along with an Orbbec Astra Depth Camera for depth sensing and gesture recognition.
- Unitree Z1 Pro Robotic Arm
- The Unitree Z1 Pro robotic arm offers 6 degrees of freedom and a reach of 740mm. Customizing kinematics is possible based on specific requirements.
Software and Getting Started
- ROS2 Quick Start
- Follow the provided instructions for a quick start with ROS2 on the NVIDIA Jetson Orin controller.
- Pre-installed ROS2 Packages
- Utilize the pre-installed ROS2 Packages for enhanced functionality and performance of the Pickerbot Pro.
- Troubleshooting
- If you encounter any issues, refer to the troubleshooting section in the user manual or contact Roboworks support for assistance.
FAQs
- Q: Can I use a different software on the NVIDIA Jetson Orin controller?
- A: It is not recommended to flash different software to maintain compatibility with other components. For advanced use cases, please contact Roboworks support.
- Q: What is the reach of the Unitree Z1 Pro robotic arm?
- A: The Unitree Z1 Pro robotic arm has a reach of 740mm with 6 degrees of freedom.
SUMMARY
Pickerbot Pro is a versatile R&D robotics platform that can be used for a variety of applications, both outdoors such as agriculture, mining, and construction, and indoors, including robot-assisted logistics, search and rescue demonstrations, and mapping. Featuring the Unitree Z1 Pro Robotic arm with a 740mm reach and 3kg payload capacity, the Pickerbot Pro offers impressive articulation with 6 degrees of freedom, along with force feedback and collision detection capabilities. Powered by an NVIDIA Jetson Orin series single-board-computer (Nano or NX variant), it provides more advanced computer vision and machine-learning tasks with powerful graphics or parallel computing functionality using CUDA, whilst retaining a compact and lightweight design. The Pickerbot Pro is equipped with an Orbbec 3D Astra camera, providing depth sensing, object tracking, and gesture recognition capabilities.
Built on a sturdy yet lightweight chassis, the Pickerbot Pro features a 4WD system with independent suspension for enhanced navigation across uneven terrain. Large mecanum wheels provide precise omnidirectional movement yet a high grip.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
ROS2 Controller: NVIDIA Jetson Orin (NX 8GB or Nano 4GB)
The onboard Jetson Orin single-board computer provides powerful embedded computing to the Pickerbot Pro. It comes with a 128 GB SSD, Intel Wireless card and onboard antennas, HDMI, four USB ports (3 of which are USB 3.0), Ethernet, and USB-C. A DC barrel jack to power the board, using between 9-19V. The onboard GPIO pins use the same basic layout as the popular Raspberry Pi single-board computers, starting with Pin #1 on the outside row, adjacent to the Ethernet port. Likewise, two CSI camera connectors enable functionality with the Raspberry Pi brand and similar small-form-factor cameras. Pre-installed software includes ROS2 Humble, Ubuntu 22.04, and NVIDIA Jetpack, enabling the full capability of the Orin platform.
Note: To maintain compatibility with the chassis controller and other robot components, we do not recommend flashing the Jetson Orin with different software. For more advanced use cases please contact Roboworks support.
Sensing System: LiDAR & Depth Camera
The Pickerbot Pro is equipped with a Leishen M10 LSLiDAR. With a 30m maximum detection range 12Hz rotational scanning frequency, and a high signal-to-noise ratio, eliminating the need for additional filtering. It integrates seamlessly, providing excellent mapping and navigational capabilities.
| Depth Resolution | RGB
Resolution |
RGB Sense Angle
e |
Depth FPS | RGB a
Framerate |
Depth Framerate
n |
GDepth Range |
| 640×480 | 640×480 | 63.1×49.4° | e 58×45.5° | 30fps | 30fps | 0.6~4m |
Below are the technical specifications of the Orbbec Astra Depth Camera:
STM32 Control Board (Motor Control & IMU)
For chassis and motor control, Pickerbot Pro features an STM32 control board. This board ensures low power consumption, precise motor control, OLED readout displays for monitoring motors, and an inertial measurement unit (IMU). It can be configured for more specialized operation, or to enable encoder feedback to the Jetson Orin controller. Using the software packages Keil and FlyMCU for compilation and subsequent flashing of the STM32F103.
Chassis Overview and Battery Options
The Pickerbot Pro is equipped with omnidirectional Mecanum wheels, each featuring 45-degree offset rollers that facilitate motion in all directions. It’s crucial to note that these wheels are supplied in pairs, with each pair having rollers oriented differently. During installation on the robot, ensure that diagonally opposing wheels have rollers pointing in the same direction. If the robot moves unexpectedly, simply reverse the pairs of wheels. Considerations must be made when increasing battery capacity. The Pickerbot Pro comes standard with a 5000 mAh battery and can be upgraded to 10,000 or 20,000 mAh options for an additional cost. The 20,000 mAh battery is too large to fit within the chassis of the Pickerbot Pro and can only be installed on top of the robot chassis. Please refer to the table below for weight and size parameters.
Unitree Z1 Pro Robotic Arm
The Pickerbot Pro incorporates the Unitree Z1 Pro robotic arm, which provides impressive articulation with 6 degrees of freedom and a reach of 740mm. Please refer to the joint parameter table below for customizing kinematics to meet your specific requirements.
| Parameter | Z1 Pro |
| Weight | 4.5kg |
| Payload | 3kg |
| Reach | 740mm |
| Repeatability | ~0.1mm |
| Power Supply | 24V |
| Interface | Ethernet |
| Compatible operating system | Ubuntu |
| Maximum Power | 500W |
| Force Feedback | Yes |
| Joint | Range of Motion | Max Speed | Max Torque |
| J1 | ±150° | 180°/s | 33N·m |
| J2 | 0—180° | 180°/s | 33N·m |
| J3 | -165°—0 | 180°/s | 33N·m |
| J4 | ±80° | 180°/s | 33N·m |
| J5 | ±85° | 180°/s | 33N·m |
| J6 | ±160 | 180°/s | 33N·m |
ROS2 Quick Start
When the robot is first powered on, it is controlled by ROS by default. Meaning, the STM32 chassis controller board accepts commands from the ROS2 Controller – The Jetson Orin. Initial setup is quick and easy, from your host PC (Ubuntu Linux recommended) connect to the robot’s Wi-Fi hotspot. The password by default is “dongguan”. Next, connect to the robot using SSH via the Linux terminal, IP address is 192.168.0.100, the default password is Dongguan.
With terminal access to the robot, you can navigate to the ROS2 workspace folder, under “wheeltec_ros2” Before running test programs, navigate to wheeltec_ros2/turn_on_wheeltec_robot/ and locate wheeltec_udev.sh – This script must be run, typically only once to ensure proper configuration of peripherals. You are now able to test the robot’s functionality, to launch the ROS2 controller functionality, run: “relaunch turn_on_wheeltec_robot turn_on_wheeltec_robot.launch”
In a second terminal, you can use the keyboard_teleop node to validate chassis control, this is a modified version of the popular ROS2 Turtlebot example. Type:
“relaunch wheeltec_robot_rc keyboard_teleop.launch”
Pre-installed ROS2 Packages
Below are the following user-oriented packages, whilst other packages may be present, these are dependencies only.
turn_on_wheeltec_robot
This package is crucial for enabling robot functionality, and communication with the chassis controller. The primary script “turn_on_wheeltec_robot.launch”, must be used upon each boot to configure ROS2 and controller.
- wheeltec_rviz2
- Contains launch files to launch viz with custom configuration for Pickerbot Pro.
- wheeltec_robot_slam
- SLAM Mapping and localization package with custom configuration for Pickerbot Pro.
- wheeltec_robot_rrt2
- Rapidly exploring random tree algorithm – This package enables Pickerbot Pro to plan a path to its desired location, by launching exploration nodes.
- wheeltec_robot_keyboard
- Convenient package for validating robot functionality and controlling using the keyboard, including from remote host PC.
- wheeltec_robot_nav2
- ROS2 Navigation 2 node package.
- wheeltec_lidar_ros2
- ROS2 Lidar package for configuring Leishen M10/N10.
- wheeltec_joy
- The joystick control package contains launch files for Joystick nodes.
- simple_follower_ros2
- Basic object and line following algorithms using either laser scan or depth camera.
- ros2_astra_camera
- Astra depth camera package with drivers and launch files.
MORE INFO
Please note that the images shown are for illustrative purposes only*.
Authors: Wayne Liu, Reilly Smithers 3 July 2024
Documents / Resources
 |
ROBOWORKS Pickerbot Pro Pick and Drop Mobile Robot on Mecanum Wheels [pdf] User Manual Pickerbot Pro Pick and Drop Mobile Robot on Mecanum Wheels, Pickerbot Pro Pick, and Drop Mobile Robot on Mecanum Wheels, Mobile Robot on Mecanum Wheels, Mecanum Wheels, Wheels |