The PR2 is one of the most beloved robots in the robotics industry. It was the state-of-the-art mobile manipulator when it was launched in 2009 by Willow Garage. The PR2 was sold in small numbers to research labs. Willow Garage continued to support the PR2 until the company was shut down in 2014.
If anyone’s interested in learning about the PR2, or reviving the platform, Clearpath Robotics is here to help. Clearpath took over service and support responsibilities of the PR2 after the Willow Garage shutdown. Clearpath posted on its new documentation website all design files for PR2. You need to give up some of your information to access the files, but there’s a lot there. You can now access resources such as wiring diagrams, schematics, cable and assembly drawings and everything else related to the most advanced research and development platform of its time.
“Clearpath Robotics has been a long-standing supporter of PR2, with the intention of providing important resources to its users,” the company said on its website. “On that account, we are thrilled to have all design files for PR2 available for download on our new documentation website. The hardware and 1000+ software libraries currently available for PR2 affirms new opportunities for robotics researchers to focus on. We are excited to see how these supplementary resources will help developers with their applications.”
The PR2 could navigate unknown, human-shared environments, and could grasp and manipulate objects. The ground-breaking platform propelled research in fields of automation, manipulation and human-robot interaction. The PR2 was entirely written in the Robot Operating System (ROS), making its capabilities available through ROS interfaces. It had two 7-DOF robot arms, a variety of sensors, two computers in its base and much more.
In the meantime, take a trip down memory lane and relive some of the milestones the PR2 team achieved.
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