TORMACH Launches New ROS Robotic Arm

Daniel Rogge of TORMACH has presented a YouTube video on the new TORMACH Robot Arm, or “ROS-Based Open Industrial Manipulator.”  TORMACH is an employee-owned company of about 40 people based in Madison, WI. Their mission is to help people make things, and TORMACH has been offering computer controlled (CNC) machining equipment such as milling machines, lathes, surface grinders and similar tools for many years.  TORMACH controllers are built on top of the open-source LinuxCNC framework. 

TORMACH had such a positive result working with Linux CNC, that when Daniel encountered ROS for the first time, it was apparent that an opportunity was again there to help people make things. Imagine, he said, walking into a 2-car garage and finding not only a milling machine and a lathe, but also a robot cooperating at a work cell. If such a cell were available to the “citizen machinist”, he speculated, this could help bring cottage industry back to the U.S. TORMACH has made the interface as close to their traditional CNC interface as possible.  For details, please see TORMACH’s introduction here.

This story was provided courtesy of Bill Griggs, well-known CNC advocate, DIY mentor, multi-degreed teacher and podcast host with a following, at last count, of over 18,000 members!  Follow Bill here:

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