2 API & ROS2 Overview

This has been verified and is up to date for release/1.23.124

2.1 When to Use the SDK and REST API vs ROS2 Bridge

The robot exposes two complementary developer surfaces:

Python SDK and REST API — request and response control over HTTPS. This is the right choice for orchestration: loading and running a routine, reading state, controlling the gripper, or moving to a named position. Latency is your network round trip, typically tens of milliseconds and up, so it is not meant for tight closed-loop control.
ROS2 Realtime API (the bridge) — the robot publishes live telemetry (joint state, TCP pose, Jacobian, end-effector IMU) and accepts streamed commands (target pose, joint trajectory) as ROS2 topics. Use this when you need to continuously read state and push commands at rate: visual servoing, conveyor or target tracking, teleoperation, force-aware motion, or feeding a trajectory from an external planner.

As a rule of thumb, if you react to input every cycle and stream setpoints, use the bridge. If you issue discrete high-level commands, use the SDK.

NOTE – The ROS2 Bridge Does Not Replace the SDK

The bridge depends on the SDK. You use the Python SDK to unbrake the arm and to switch ROS2 control on and off, so the two are always used together.