MARIO

MARIO is a small robot arm that exists twice: once in simulation, once as real hardware running micro-ROS on an ESP32. It’s what SRA uses to teach ROS2 workshops.

The simulation was stuck on Gazebo Classic, which hit end-of-life. So I ported the whole thing to Gazebo Fortress — model, plugins, launch files — wrote a new teleop that’s easier for beginners, and cleaned up the ESP32 ↔ micro-ROS pipeline so the same commands drive both the sim and the real arm.

try the math it runs

This is the same idea MARIO uses to reach things: 2-link inverse kinematics. Move your cursor around. Notice it refuses to leave its workspace — real arms have real limits.

Fixing up someone else’s working robot is its own skill. The rule isn’t “make it work”, it’s “don’t break what the next workshop depends on”.