follow_joint_trajectory action client not connected

Im attempting to setup a simple controller manager through moveit to eventually connect to my robot node (which I haven't written yet). This is a single are 6DOF robot. I have my robots urdf and moveit config package complete and I can run the demo.launch with no issues. I am following this document: http://docs.ros.org/kinetic/api/moveit_tutorials/html/doc/controller_configuration/controller_configuration_tutorial.html Ive created a controller.yaml file: controller_list: - name: arm_controller action_ns: follow_joint_trajectory type: FollowJointTrajectory default: true joints: - joint_1 - joint_2 - joint_3 - joint_4 - joint_5 - joint_6 Ive created a controller launch file called "ar2_moveit_controller_manager.launch.xml": I then created a new moveit launch file called "ar2_planning_execution.launch" : [/joint_states] after launching rvis seems to open as expected. I then run rostopic list expecting to find the topic: > "/arm_controller/follow_joint_trajectory/goal" but it is not on the list. when I look back through the launch console I find this error: [ERROR] [1531100734.213718002]: Action client not connected: arm_controller/follow_joint_trajectory Ive been at a standstill on this for some time now and was hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction or let me know if I have an accurate understanding of the steps. I'm running Ubuntu 16.04 and kinetic. thank you for your input. Chris