G1Pilot

G1Pilot is an open-source ROS2 package designed to provide full control of the Unitree G1 humanoid robot. It offers two flexible control modes:

Joint Controller – for precise low-level joint control

Cartesian Controller – for intuitive Cartesian-space manipulation

In addition to control capabilities, G1Pilot continuously publishes essential real-time robot states, including:

IMU data – for orientation and acceleration monitoring

Odometry – for accurate localization

Motor states – with temperature, voltage, position, and velocity feedback

With native RViz visualization support and a ready-to-use Docker environment, G1Pilot is ideal for teleoperation, robotics research, and motion analysis, enabling seamless interaction between ROS2 and the Unitree G1.

Visual Overview

Joint Controller	Cartesian Controller

🚀 Features

• 🎮 Dual Control Modes – Switch seamlessly between Joint and Cartesian controllers for maximum flexibility.

• 📡 Real-Time State Publishing – Continuously publishes essential robot data:

  • IMU orientation and acceleration

  • Odometry for localization

  • Detailed motor states (temperature, voltage, position, velocity)

• 🐳 Docker Ready – Quickly build and run the package using provided Docker scripts.

• 🔄 ROS2 Humble Support – Fully compatible with ROS2 Humble, ensuring smooth integration with modern robotics stacks.

• 🛠️ Open-Source & Extensible – Designed for researchers and developers to easily customize and extend functionality.

Table of Contents

• Pre-requisites
• Installation
• Nodes Overview
• Usage
• Visual Overview
• Features
• Contributing
• License

Pre-requisites

• For visualization, you need to install the g1pilot package in the same directory as this package.
• Be connected to the robot via WiFi or Ethernet. It's important to know which interface you are using.

Installation

We prepare a docker image to build the package. You can use the following command to build the package, go the docker folder and run the following command:

sh build.sh

Then, you can run the docker image with the following command:

sh run.sh

🧠 Nodes Overview

G1Pilot provides multiple ROS2 nodes to control and monitor the Unitree G1 robot.

1️⃣ Cartesian Controller (cartesian_controller)

• 🎯 Purpose: Controls the right arm end-effector of the robot.
• 🔄 Behavior: Sends high-level Cartesian commands that are converted into joint movements via the Joint Controller.
• 🛠️ Use case: Ideal for precise end-effector manipulation in Cartesian space.

2️⃣ Joint Controller (joint_controller)

• 🎯 Purpose: Directly controls the robot’s individual joints.
• 🔄 Behavior: Receives low-level joint commands and sends them to the robot hardware for execution.
• 🛠️ Use case: Required for fine-grained motion control and as a backend for Cartesian control.

3️⃣ Interactive Marker (interactive_marker)

• 🎯 Purpose: Publishes a movable marker in RViz to interactively control the robot’s end-effector.
• 🛠️ Use case: Intuitive GUI control of the robot without manual command-line inputs.

4️⃣ Robot State (robot_state)

• 🎯 Purpose: Publishes the complete state of the robot, including:
  • IMU readings
  • Odometry
  • Detailed motor states (temperature, voltage, position, velocity)
• 🛠️ Use case: Used for monitoring and visualization in RViz or other tools.

5️⃣ Loco Client (loco_client)

• 🎯 Purpose: Enables whole-body control and locomotion, allowing the robot to move using Unitree’s built-in policy.
• 🛠️ Use case: Autonomous or manual locomotion commands for walking and navigation.

6️⃣ Joystick (joystick)

• 🎯 Purpose: Integrates a game controller (joystick) to manually control the robot.
• 🛠️ Use case: Remote teleoperation for research or demonstrations.

Basic Controls

• L1 → Emergency Stop → The robot enters Damp Mode (safe state).
• ⬆️ D-Pad Up → Switches the robot to FSM 4, making it ready to receive commands.
• R1 → Activates Balance Mode.
• Left Joystick → Controls linear movements (forward, backward, sideways).
• Right Joystick → Controls angular rotation (turning).

Usage

Once you have the docker image running, you can run the following command to start the unitree node:

colcon build --symlink-install --packages-select g1pilot g1pilot

Then, source the workspace:

source install/setup.bash

To visualize the real robot in RViz, you can run the following command:

ros2 launch g1pilot robot_state_launcher.launch.py

To control the robot, using the joint controller or the cartesian controller, you can run the following command:

ros2 launch g1pilot controller_launcher.launch.py