Quest2ROS — VR Robot Teleoperation via Meta Quest

What It Does

Controller data as ROS topics

The app connects to a ROS-TCP-Endpoint on the same network and begins publishing controller data immediately.

🎮

Dual Controller Tracking

6-DOF pose (position & orientation) for both left and right controllers streamed as PoseStamped messages.

💨

Velocity Streaming

Linear and angular velocities published as Twist messages, ready to pipe directly into your robot's motion stack.

🔘

Full Button Inputs

All buttons, thumbstick axes, trigger values, and finger-pressure data exposed via custom OVR2ROSInputs messages.

📳

Haptic Feedback

Subscribe to vibration commands with configurable frequency and amplitude to drive each controller independently.

🧭

Frame Calibration

Hold A+B or X+Y for 4 seconds to align the VR coordinate frame with your robot's reference frame. A haptic vibration confirms the calibration.

🌐

Local Network Only

Data is sent directly to the ROS-TCP-Endpoint on your own machine. No cloud relay involved.

Calibration to robot frame

Example usage on Franka Panda (10× speed)

ROS Interface

Publishers & Subscribers

Six published topics — three per controller — plus two haptic feedback subscribers.

PUB Published (6 topics)

/right_hand/posegeometry_msgs/PoseStamped
/right_hand/twistgeometry_msgs/Twist
/right_hand/inputsquest2ros/OVR2ROSInputs
/left_hand/posegeometry_msgs/PoseStamped
/left_hand/twistgeometry_msgs/Twist
/left_hand/inputsquest2ros/OVR2ROSInputs

SUB Subscribed (2 topics)

/right_hand/haptic_feedbackquest2ros/OVR2ROSHapticFeedback
/left_hand/haptic_feedbackquest2ros/OVR2ROSHapticFeedback

Custom message fields:

            # OVR2ROSInputs
            bool[]    buttons
            float32[] thumbstick
            float32[] finger_pressure
             
            # OVR2ROSHapticFeedback
            float32   frequency
            float32   amplitude
          

Quick Start

Setup

Requires the Quest app, the ROS-TCP-Endpoint, and both machines on the same network.

Install the Quest app

Download Quest2ROS from the Meta Quest Store onto your headset.

Clone the packages

Clone the main branch and the standard ROS-TCP-Endpoint into your catkin workspace.

            $cd ~/catkin_ws/src
            $git clone https://github.com/Quest2ROS/quest2ros.git
            $git clone https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/ROS-TCP-Endpoint.git
          

Build the workspace

            $cd ~/catkin_ws && catkin build
            $source devel/setup.bash
          

Launch the TCP endpoint

Start the endpoint on your Ubuntu machine. Note your local IP address.

$roslaunch ros_tcp_endpoint endpoint.launch tcp_ip:=YOUR_IP tcp_port:=10000

Connect from your Quest

Open Quest2ROS, select ROS 1, enter the machine IP and port 10000, and tap Connect.

Calibrate the frame

Press A+B (right) or X+Y (left) simultaneously to align the VR frame with your robot's reference frame.

Citation

If you use Quest2ROS

Please cite the workshop paper:

Michael C. Welle, Nils Ingelhag, Martina Lippi, Maciej Wozniak, Andrea Gasparri, Danica Kragic.
Quest2ROS: An App to Facilitate Teleoperating Robots.
7th International Workshop on Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed-Reality for Human-Robot Interactions, 2024.

        @inproceedings{welle2024quest2ros,
          title   = {Quest2ROS: An App to Facilitate Teleoperating Robots},
          author  = {Welle, Michael C and Ingelhag, Nils and Lippi, Martina and
                    Wozniak, Maciej and Gasparri, Andrea and Kragic, Danica},
          booktitle = {7th International Workshop on Virtual, Augmented, and
                    Mixed-Reality for Human-Robot Interactions},
          year    = {2024}
        }
      

Download preprint (PDF)