IRC 2026 — ROS 2 Rover (Kartikeya)

ROS 2 Jazzy rover stack built for the International Rover Challenge 2026 by Team Automatons.

The rover — named Kartikeya — is a 6-wheeled differential drive platform with an integrated robotic arm, GPS, encoder feedback, real-time telemetry, and live video streaming. It communicates wirelessly over WiFi at distances of 500+ metres using a tuned FastDDS/FastRTPS middleware profile.

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Features

• ROS 2 Jazzy architecture with modular package separation
• ros2_control hardware interfaces for drive base and robotic arm
• micro-ROS bridge for embedded controller communication
• 6-wheel differential drive with encoder feedback
• 5-DOF robotic arm with inverse kinematics node
• PS4 controller support (drive + arm on separate controllers)
• Web-based interface — control the rover from any browser, no ROS install needed
• Long-range WiFi communication (500 m+) with FastDDS/FastRTPS tuning
• Live video streaming pipeline
• GPS integration (u-blox)
• RViz2 visualisation with custom URDF/Xacro robot description

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Repository Structure

src/
├── irc_rover_bringup        # Top-level launch files and controller config
├── irc_rover_description    # Full rover URDF (chassis + arm), meshes
├── rover_base_bringup       # Rover-only launch and joystick config
├── rover_base_description   # Rover chassis URDF and twist_to_stamped node
├── rover_base_hardware      # ros2_control SystemInterface for drive base
├── arm_bringup              # Arm launch files and controller config
├── arm_description          # Arm URDF, meshes, inverse kinematics node
├── arm_hardware             # ros2_control SystemInterface for arm joints
├── irc_interfaces           # Custom ROS 2 message definitions (Ps4, ArmAngles)
├── ps4                      # PS4 controller driver node (pygame-based)
├── ublox                    # u-blox GPS metapackage
├── ublox_gps                # u-blox GPS driver node
├── ublox_msgs               # u-blox message definitions
└── ublox_serialization      # u-blox serialization utilities

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System Architecture

PS4 Controller / Web Interface
           │
    ROS 2 Topics (WiFi / FastDDS)
           │
    Control Nodes
    (ps4_data_node, ps4_data_to_twist, arm_kinematics_node)
           │
    ros2_control Controller Manager
    (rover_base_controller, arm_joints_controller)
           │
    Hardware Interface (SystemInterface)
    (rover_base_hardware, arm_hardware)
           │
    micro-ROS Agent (serial)
           │
    Embedded Controller
           │
    Motors / Encoders / Sensors

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Communication System

The rover communicates over WiFi using FastDDS (FastRTPS) as the ROS 2 middleware. A custom XML profile (fastrtps.xml) is included in the repository root and is critical for stable long-range wireless operation.

The profile:

• Restricts DDS discovery to the selected network interface
• Reduces unnecessary multicast traffic over the wireless link
• Optimises UDP transport for long-range WiFi
• Enables reliable topic communication at 500 m+

Set the profile before launching any node:

export FASTRTPS_DEFAULT_PROFILES_FILE=~/fastrtps.xml

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Hardware Stack

Category	Components
Compute	Ubuntu 24.04, ROS 2 Jazzy, micro-ROS
Drive	6-wheel differential drive, wheel encoders
Arm	5-DOF robotic arm, custom IK node
GPS	u-blox module (ublox_gps driver)
Control	PS4 controller (wired/wireless via pygame)
Comms	Long-range WiFi, FastDDS, video stream

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Web Interface

The rover supports a browser-based control interface that communicates with ROS 2 topics over the network. This allows:

• Rover driving and arm control from any device
• Live telemetry visualisation
• Video stream viewing
• ROS topic monitoring

No ROS installation is required on the client device.

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Build and Launch

Prerequisites

• Ubuntu 24.04
• ROS 2 Jazzy
• micro-ROS agent
• ros2_control, controller_manager
• pygame (for PS4 node)

Clone and Build

git clone https://github.com/Brinex45/ros2_rover.git
cd ros2_rover
colcon build --symlink-install
source install/setup.bash

Set FastDDS Profile

export FASTRTPS_DEFAULT_PROFILES_FILE=~/fastrtps.xml

Launch

Full rover + arm:

ros2 launch irc_rover_bringup irc_rover.launch.xml

Drive base only:

ros2 launch rover_base_bringup rover_base.launch.py

Arm only:

ros2 launch arm_bringup arm.launch.py

micro-ROS agent (connect embedded controller):

ros2 run micro_ros_agent micro_ros_agent serial --dev /dev/ttyACM0

RViz visualisation:

rviz2

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PS4 Controller

Two PS4 controllers are supported simultaneously — one for rover drive control and one for arm control.The Rover's PS4 has more priority i.e. if the Rover PS4 gets disconnected the Arm's PS4 is shifted to Rover so that the Navigation is not hindered. The ps4_data_node detects connected joysticks automatically and publishes on separate topics:

• /ps4_data_rover — drive commands
• /ps4_data_arm — arm joint commands

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ros2_control Packages

Package	Interface Type	Responsibility
rover_base_hardware	SystemInterface	Wheel velocity + encoder feedback
arm_hardware	SystemInterface	Arm joint position control

Both packages communicate with the embedded controller via micro-ROS topics over serial.

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Custom Messages (irc_interfaces)

Message	Fields	Used for
Ps4	ps4_data_analog, ps4_data_buttons	Controller input
ArmAngles	Joint angle array	Arm IK output

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Future Goals

• Nav2 integration
• Sensor fusion with EKF
• SLAM integration
• Autonomous waypoint navigation
• Visual-inertial odometry
• Recovery behaviours
• Mission planner

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Technologies Used

ROS 2 Jazzy	FastDDS / FastRTPS
micro-ROS	ros2_control
RViz2	Xacro / URDF
C++	Python
Ubuntu 24.04	u-blox GPS
pygame

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Team

Developed for the International Rover Challenge 2026 by Team Automatons.

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