Robotiq_description and robotiq_controllers releases moving from ros2_robotiq_gripper to robotiq-ros

Hi all,

The robotiq_controllers and robotiq_description packages on Humble, Jazzy, Lyrical and Rolling will soon be released from robotiq/robotiq-ros instead of PickNikRobotics/ros2_robotiq_gripper, with PickNik’s agreement. robotiq-ros started as a fork of ros2_robotiq_gripper and is maintained by Robotiq. The same release will also add robotiq_driver, robotiq_msgs and the other robotiq-ros packages to the build farm for the first time. Kilted is not affected and stays on PickNik’s 0.0.1 until its end of life.

Because apt upgrades can’t be undone, here is what will change for you.

What stays the same: the package names, the file paths, the robotiq_gripper macro and its arguments, the joint and link names, the robotiq_driver/RobotiqGripperHardwareInterface plugin and the RobotiqActivationController. The 0.0.1 names sim_ignition, sim_isaac, fake_sensor_commands, urdf/robotiq_gripper.ros2_control.xacro and the connected_to argument of ur_to_robotiq still work, but print a deprecation warning. We expanded the released descriptions of Kinova’s ros2_kortex, Clearpath’s clearpath_common and Husarion’s husarion_components_description against the new packages on every distro where they are released, and our CI will continue to check them.

What changes:

• The version goes from 0.0.1 to 1.x.
• Installing robotiq_controllers now also installs robotiq_driver and robotiq_msgs.
• With mock hardware (use_fake_hardware:=true), /joint_states carries only the driven joint, robotiq_85_left_knuckle_joint. robot_state_publisher derives the other finger joints from the URDF’s mimic tags. If your code reads the other finger joints from /joint_states, please tell us.
• In Gazebo, the plugin is gz_ros2_control/GazeboSimSystem instead of ign_ros2_control/IgnitionSystem. gz_ros2_control registers both names.
• With sim_isaac, the plugin is topic_based_ros2_control/TopicBasedSystem instead of isaac_ros2_control/IsaacSystem, on the same topics.
• You also get more state interfaces and more controllers. See the README.

If something breaks: please open an issue on robotiq-ros. Until it’s fixed, you can build 0.0.1 from source (the 0.0.1 tag of ros2_robotiq_gripper), or point apt at the snapshots.ros.org repository from before the sync.

Timeline:

1. On 2026-11-18, if nobody raises a blocker: we open the rosdistro PRs.
2. A few days after each merge: the packages reach ros-testing. We’ll post here, so you can try them before they reach the main repository.
3. At each distro’s next sync: the packages reach the main repository.

Questions and concerns are welcome here.