Integrating YARP and ROS 2 for web-based and embedded robot GUIs

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17979/ja-cea.2026.47.13858

Keywords:

Collaborative robot, Externally Guided Motion, Graphical user interface, Humanoid robot, ROS 2, YARP

Abstract

A graphical user interface (GUI) in robotics aids the operator in gaining insight on the robot state and configuration, and issuing motion commands, among others. We seek to fulfill these goals in the proposed software architectures by adopting GUI design frameworks (React with Vite and Blender, TouchGFXDesigner) and robotic middlewares (ROS 2, YARP). For practical demonstration, the ABB CRB 15000-5 "GoFa" cobot and the humanoid robot TEO have been considered. For the former, we leverage ROS 2 to communicate the robot through a control node wrapping the ABB Externally Guided Motion (EGM) interface, and introduce a Node.js web application that bridges the ROS 2 network via WebSockets while staying responsive to different screen sizes and resolutions of the user device. For the latter, an embedded graphical and touch-based application was designed with STM tools to run on an Mbed board connected to the YARP network of the robot.

References

Banthia, V., Maddahi, Y., May, M., Blakley, D., Chang, Z., Gbur, A., Tu, C., Sepehri, N., 2016. Development of a graphical user interface for a socially interactive robot: A case study evaluation, in: Information Technology, Electronics and Mobile Communication Conference (IEMCON), IEEE. doi:10.1109/IEMCON.2016.7746294.

Gomez, C., Hernandez, A., Crespo, J., Barber, R., 2016. Learning robotics through a friendly graphical user interface, in: ICERI2016 Proceedings, IATED. pp. 483–492. doi:10.21125/iceri.2016.1120.

Łukawski, B., Cervera, M.M., Pascual, C.M., Oña, E.D., Victores, J.G., Jardón, A., 2025. Espresso macchiato, por favore: collaborative robotic coffee-making for education, in: Jornadas de Automática, CEA. doi:10.17979/ja-cea.2025.46.12274.

Łukawski, B., Oña, E.D., Jardón, A., Victores, J.G., Balaguer, C., 2025. Development of educational applications with ABB GoFa collaborative robot using Externally Guided Motion, in: Int. Conf. on Control, Automation and Diagnosis (ICCAD), IEEE. doi:10.1109/ICCAD64771.2025.11099395.

Łukawski, B., Rebollo, M., Gilabert, Á., Victores, J.G., Balaguer, C., Jardón, A., 2025. YARP Cartesian controller layers over ROS 2 for teleoperation and web applications, in: Jornadas de Automática, CEA. doi:10.17979/ja-cea.2025.46.12252.

Metta, G., Fitzpatrick, P., Natale, L., 2006. YARP: Yet Another Robot Platform. International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems 3, 43–48. doi:10.5772/5761.

Quigley, M., Conley, K., Gerkey, B., Faust, J., Foote, T., Leibs, J., Wheeler, R., Ng, A.Y., et al., 2009. ROS: an open-source Robot Operating System, in: ICRA workshop on open source software, Kobe. p. 5.

Rajapaksha, D.D., Nuhuman, M.N.M., Gunawardhana, S.D., Sivalingam, A., Hassan, M.N.M., Rajapaksha, S., Jayawardena, C., 2021. Web based user-friendly graphical interface to control robots with ROS environment, in: Int. Conf. on Information Technology Research (ICITR), IEEE. doi:10.1109/ICITR54349.2021.9657337

Downloads

Published

2026-09-01

Issue

Section

Robótica