Overview
Lightweight Cobot (LWC) is an open system for controlling the KUKA LBR IIWA 7 R800 collaborative robot based on ROS 2 Jazzy. It supports both a physical robot through the FRI protocol and a virtual Webots simulation. The project includes the cobot CLI, a ROS 2 Control hardware interface, MoveIt 2 motion planning, and REST/MCP APIs for AI-agent integration.
Repositories
| Platform | Link | Status |
|---|---|---|
| GitVerse (preferred) | daniel-robotics/lightweight-cobot | primary |
| GitHub | Daniel-Robotic/lightweight-cobot | mirror |
Online documentation
- GitVerse Pages — primary
- GitHub Pages — mirror
Requirements
- A physical KUKA LBR IIWA 7 R800 for real-robot operation, or
- Webots if you only want to use simulation;
- A PC or server running Ubuntu 24.04, or SSH access to an existing server;
- Network access to the robot controller.
Recommended order
- Sunrise Workbench setup — prepare the KUKA controller. (Physical robot only.)
- Connect to the server — choose local or remote deployment and connect over SSH.
- Install the project — install LWC using
curl,git, or manually, then runcobot setup. - Configure the system — set the robot IP, ports, and tools in
cobot-setting.yaml. - cobot CLI — review commands for running, building, and updating the project.
Simulation only?
If a physical robot is unavailable, skip step 1 and start with the project installation. Launch the simulator with cobot run --simulate.
cobot setup automates steps 3–4
After installing the project, run cobot setup. The wizard will configure the documentation, robot parameters, and the ROS 2 or Docker build environment.