KUKA
The Augsburg arm maker owned by Midea, with KSS, Sunrise and the newer iiQKA.OS2 controllers. An official Apache-2.0 ROS 2 driver covers iiQKA.OS2 through RSI, and community drivers cover the rest.
| Organisation | KUKA SE & Co. KGaA (Augsburg, Germany); owned by Guangdong Midea Electric Co., Ltd. since the 2022 squeeze-out |
|---|---|
| Website | www.kuka.com/ |
| Licensing | Proprietary controller software (KSS, Sunrise.OS, iiQKA.OS2) and iiQWorks; ROS 2 drivers and external control SDK under Apache-2.0 |
| Pricing | Robots quoted through KUKA sales and the my.KUKA marketplace, no public list price; iiQWorks.Sim Basic is free and Advanced add-ons are bought in the KUKA Shop |
| Updated | 14 Nov 2026 |
Products and offerings #
| Name | Kind | Positioning |
|---|---|---|
| LBR iisy | cobot | 6-axis cobot family from 3 kg at 760 mm reach to 15 kg at 930 mm reach, on the KR C5 micro-2 controller |
| LBR iiwa | cobot | Arm on the Sunrise controller; ROS 2 support through the community Sunrise FRI driver |
| iiQKA.OS2 and KR C5 | controller | Current operating system and controller line, the target of the official ROS 2 driver |
| iiQWorks.Sim | simulator | Offline simulation and programming; Basic tier free, process and virtual-controller features as paid add-ons |
| kuka_drivers | library | Official ros2_control driver for iiQKA.OS2 over RSI 6.x, for Humble and Jazzy |
Who they are
This hub is for engineers driving KUKA arms from external software, whether that is an LBR arm in a lab or a KR-series arm in a production cell. KUKA dates from 1898, when Johann Josef Keller and Jakob Knappich founded an acetylene plant in Augsburg. In 1973 it built FAMULUS, which KUKA describes as the first industrial robot with six electric motor-driven axes, according to its history page. The legal entity is now KUKA SE & Co. KGaA, registered at Zugspitzstraße 140 in Augsburg. Since a squeeze-out that took effect on 8 November 2022, all shares are held by Guangdong Midea Electric Co., Ltd., part of the Chinese Midea group, according to KUKA’s press release.
Tooling and APIs
KUKA has several controller generations in the field, and which one you have decides the integration path:
| Controller software | ROS 2 driver |
|---|---|
| iiQKA.OS2 | Official, kuka-ros/kuka_drivers, over RSI |
| KSS | Community, kroshu/kuka_drivers, using the same RSI driver with a different controller-side setup |
| Sunrise (LBR iiwa) | Community, kroshu, over FRI |
| iiQKA with EAC | Community, kroshu |
The kuka-ros organisation states that it provides the official ROS 2 driver for robots on iiQKA.OS2, using the Robot Sensor Interface (RSI) 6.0.0 or newer. The driver is Apache-2.0, has a master branch for Jazzy and a humble branch, and installs from apt as ros-jazzy-kuka-drivers. It supports three setups: RSI alone, RSI with EKI for start-up and status, or RSI with mxAutomation. The RSI cycle time is 4 ms or 12 ms. KUKA tested it on a KR C5 with a KR 16 R1610-2 and on a KR C5 micro-2 with an LBR iisy 3 R760, according to the RSI driver guide.
Two design choices differ from most ros2_control drivers. The controller sets the timing, so the driver’s read blocks until the robot sends a packet, and the stock ros2_control_node is replaced by a custom control node. A lifecycle node called robot_manager decides when external control starts, so the robot does not move the moment the launch file runs.
The LBR iisy family (6-axis cobots) ranges from the iisy 3 R760 (3 kg payload, 760 mm reach) to the iisy 15 R930 (15 kg, 930 mm), all on the KR C5 micro-2 with iiQKA.OS2, according to the LBR iisy page. The page does not state repeatability.
iiQWorks.Sim is the simulation tool. Its Basic tier is free, and process simulation, offline programming with RCS and the Virtual Robot Controller are paid add-ons from the KUKA Shop, according to KUKA.
Pain points: the driver recommends a PREEMPT_RT kernel on the client and does not recommend Windows for it. Controller-side setup needs a Windows PC with WorkVisual or iiQWorks.Sim on the KLI network, so a typical bench has two computers.
Migration notes
- Pick the driver by controller, not by arm. The same arm type can sit on different controller software. Read the controller’s software version before choosing a repository.
- From KSS to iiQKA.OS2. Both use the same RSI-based ROS 2 driver, and only the controller-side setup differs, according to the kroshu README. Your ROS side carries over. Controller programs and configuration need reworking for the new system.
- Frames and units. Cartesian poses on the pendant use KUKA’s own units and Euler-angle convention. Check both in the manual for your controller software and convert to ROS metres and quaternions in one place, then verify with a known point.
- Between makers. The external-control pattern matches ABB EGM and FANUC Stream Motion: the controller runs safety and servo loops, and ROS streams joint setpoints at the controller’s rate.
Watch for
- Split support. Only iiQKA.OS2 has an official driver. LBR iiwa, KSS and first-generation iiQKA users rely on community maintenance through kroshu.
- Controller-side software. RSI, EKI and mxAutomation must be installed on the controller for the matching driver setup. Confirm availability and cost with KUKA before you design around them.
- Blocking timing. Because the controller sets the cycle, a slow ROS controller misses packets rather than running late. Test your controller’s worst-case execution time against the 4 ms cycle.