LIS robot operation repo

This repo is how we, in the Learning & Intelligent Systems Lab, operate our robots. We decided for a spline-based convention to command motion (in class BotOp), which turned out the cleanest interface to our motion optimization methods, and now also MPC methods.

This repo is really our working environment, is not clean, contains much outdated code, and might be too specific for others to use, but we're happy to share. When run without hardware, the BotOp interface can emulate/simulate any robot (e.g., found in rai-robotModels).

See the robotic python package for a python wrapper.

The rai module contains our actual algorithmic code base (data structures, optimizers, kinematics, KOMO, LGP, etc).

We don't use ROS at all anymore.

Installation

This assumes a standard Ubuntu, tested on 18.04, 20.04, and latest docker. (When compiling in a docker, perhaps export APTGETYES="--yes"; alias sudo="" )

• The following assumes $HOME/git as your git path, and $HOME/.local to install 3rd-party libs -- please stick to this (no system-wide installs). The following installs basic ubuntu packages (used by external packages and botop):

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install --yes \
    g++ clang make cmake curl git wget \
    liblapack-dev libf2c2-dev libqhull-dev libeigen3-dev libann-dev libccd-dev \
    libjsoncpp-dev libyaml-cpp-dev libpoco-dev libboost-system-dev portaudio19-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev libhidapi-dev \
    libx11-dev libglu1-mesa-dev libglfw3-dev libglew-dev freeglut3-dev libpng-dev libassimp-dev
  mkdir -p $HOME/git $HOME/.local
  

• External libraries: You can skip librealsense and libfranka if you disable below. To standardize installations, I use a basic install script (have a look, if you have concerns what it does).

  export MAKEFLAGS="-j $(command nproc --ignore 2)"
  wget https://github.com/MarcToussaint/rai-extern/raw/main/install.sh; chmod a+x install.sh
  ./install.sh fcl
  ./install.sh physx
  ./install.sh librealsense
  ./install.sh libfranka  ## for OLD frankas instead:   ./install.sh -v 0.7.1 libfranka
  

• You can skip this, if you disable pybind11 below.

  sudo apt install --yes python3-dev python3 python3-pip
  python3 -m pip install --user numpy pybind11 pybind11-stubgen
  
  # add the following to your .bashrc, if not done already
  echo 'export PATH="${PATH}:$HOME/.local/bin"' >> ~/.bashrc
  echo 'export PYTHONPATH="${PYTHONPATH}:$HOME/.local/lib"' >> ~/.bashrc
  

• Finally, clone and compile this repo:

  cd $HOME/git
  git clone --recurse-submodules [email protected]:MarcToussaint/botop.git
  cd botop
  export PY_VERSION=`python3 -c "import sys; print(str(sys.version_info[0])+'.'+str(sys.version_info[1]))"`
  cmake -DUSE_BULLET=OFF -DUSE_OPENCV=OFF -DPY_VERSION=$PY_VERSION . -B build  #options: disable USE_LIBFRANKA USE_REALSENSE USE_PYBIND USE_PHYSX
  make -C build/
  

• Optionally install lib, headers, and binaries to ~/.local

  make -C build/ install
  

• Test the things in test/

  bot -sim -loop
  

Panda robot operation

• The user needs to be part of the realtime and dialout unix group:

  sudo usermod -a -G realtime <username>
  sudo usermod -a -G dialout <username>
  

You need to log out and back in (or even reboot) for this to take effect. Check with groups in a terminal.

• Turn on the power switch at the control box
• Open the panda web interface at https://172.16.0.2/desk/. Accept the security risk. You'll need to log in with user mti and passwd mti-engage
• Unlock the joints
• ALWAYS 2 PEOPLE ARE REQUIRED! ONE TO HOLD THE EMERGENCY STOP
• Perform a series of tests
  • bot -close
  • bot -open
  • bot -home
  • bot -loop

Setting up your own coding environment/directory

• Use a separate repository for your own code

• Place the repository in $HOME/git (parallel to ~/git/botop)

• In a working directory with your main.cpp place the following Makefile - and compile

  BASE = ../../botop/rai
  
  include $(BASE)/build/generic.mk
  

• If you have more cpp-files, you can add OBJS = main.o code.o etc.o

• Otherwise, use your own build system and just link with librai.so

cmd line tool bot

• bot -open -close
• bot -home
• bot -loop -speed 2
• bot -float
• bot -hold
• bot -damp