Use MoveIt with a different end-effector in place of the Robotiq grippers

[nicco99-prog]

I would like to customize my Kinova robot by equipping it with a different end-effector instead of the Robotiq grippers. I already have the URDF and Xacro files for this end-effector, and I’d like to use MoveIt to control my robot outside of simulation. Do you have any suggestions?
Even when I try to remove the gripper and use only the kinova robot without the gripper, I get this kind of error:
[ros2_control_node-1] [ERROR] [1747672075.483567156] [KortexMultiInterfaceHardware]: Gripper joint name is empty!

PS: Running on ROS2 Jazzy, Ubuntu 24.04

[aalmrad]

Hello,

For a gripper other than the ones from robotiq, you have to add the following:
1- Add the gripper's description to the arm's description in the .xacro files
2- For real-life control, I supposed that this gripper cannot use the internal bus comm that i provided for Robotiq grippers so you need to make sure that this gripper has its own ros2_control hardware_interface added
3- Make sure to modify the "kortex.ros2_control.xacro" file if needed.
4- Modify the .yaml file where the gripper controller is defined if needed.
5- Make sure the start the new gripper's controller in a launch file or other means.

As for the issue encountered when you try to operate the arm without a gripper, it will be investigated soon and I will report back with updates.

Best,
Abed