HydROS 104: Interactive ROS compatible Electro-Hydraulic Educational Platform

Actuation is the cornerstone on which each mechatronics device is built. Hydraulic actuation offers features that no other actuators can provide. In particular, it provides high power-weight and high power-volume ratios that are indispensable for portable devices. At the hardware level, recent trends have led to the development of electro-hydraulic actuators. Those actuators combine the advantages of hydraulic and electrical actuation while masking their disadvantages. At the software level, the Robot Operating System has emerged as a suitable solution for developing robotics applications in the past few years. To comply with these trends, KALYSTA Actuation, a French company, proposes an educational development kit, "HydROS 104", to train the workforce to use ROS-compatible electro-hydraulic actuators, notably the patented Servo Electro-Hydraulic Actuator SEHA.