Boris, the IRLab Dual Manipulator Robot, University of Birmingham

The IRLab Boris robot is composed of two Kuka LWR equipped with two Pisa/IIT Soft Hands each. The arms are mounted on a torso that is fixed on a working table.

This package uses ROS/kinetic with Gazebo7 on Ubuntu 16.04.

Install dependencies

• sudo apt-get install python-rosinstall python-rosinstall-generator python-wstool build-essential

• sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-ros-controllers

• sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-ros-control

• sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-moveit

Installation on ROS Kinetic and Ubuntu 16.04

Create a catkin workspace:

• mkdir -p $HOME/Projects/boris_ws/src

Clone boris-robot repo inside src directory of your catkin workspace:

• cd $HOME/Projects/boris_ws/src

• git clone https://github.com/IRLabUoB/boris-robot.git

Fetch required packages with wstool:

• wstool init

• wstool merge boris-robot/boris-robot.rosinstall

• wstool update

Install remaining dependencies using rosdep

• rosdep install --from-paths . --ignore-src --rosdistro $ROS_DISTRO

Build it

• cd $HOME/Projects/boris_ws
• catkin_make

Use

The command to launch the robot in simulation is:

roslaunch boris_description display.launch

The command to launch the robot for real is:

roslaunch boris_description display.launch use_rviz:=true load_moveit:=false use_calibration_package:=false left_arm_enabled:=true right_arm_enabled:=true use_robot_sim:=false

Please, check the available options and docs for arguments with:

roslaunch --args boris_descrtiption display.launch

By default, the simulation is paused at the begining to wait for all controllers and stuff load, otherwise, the robots move around without control. When the command above stop sending messages on the screen, you need to call the following service in a different terminal:

rosservice call /gazebo/unpause_physics

The configured groups in MoveIt! for this robot are:

• right_arm: a serial kinematic chain from world to right_arm_7_link
• right_hand_arm: a serial kinematic chain from world to right_hand_palm_link
• left_arm: a serial kinematic chain from world to left_arm_7_link
• left_hand_arm: a serial kinematic chain from world to left_hand_palm_link
• head: a kinematic tree containing all joints that belongs to the head
• dual_hand_arm: it contains groups right_hand_arm and left_hand_arm for bi-manual tasks.
• full_robot: it contains the grous right_hand_arm, left_hand_arm and head

There is a home pose called <GROUP_NAME>_home for each group that you can use readly.

Note: the right_hand_arm and left_hand_arm groups, hence the full_robot as well, do not include the hand synergy joints. This is only because in our demos, we don't plan the hand closure, but just close it.

For the real scenario, check instruction on each of the components on how to set the real hardware up properly.

IMPORTANT: We don't use the mounting plate on the KUKA arms, the small disc that can be attached to the 7th link before the true end-effector. This is important for calibration and mounting the hand to be consistent with the model.

Hand-eye calibration

TODO

Useful configured commands

• UPLOAD ALL DRIVERS WITH ROBOT-CAMERA CALIBRATION BROADCASTER:

roslaunch boris_description display.launch left_arm_enabled:=true right_arm_enabled:=true left_hand_enabled:=true right_hand_enabled:=true load_moveit:=false use_rviz:=false use_robot_sim:=false

• UPLOAD ALL DRIVERS ONLY (NO CAMERA CALIBRATION):

roslaunch boris_description display.launch left_arm_enabled:=true right_arm_enabled:=true left_hand_enabled:=true right_hand_enabled:=true load_moveit:=false use_rviz:=false use_robot_sim:=false use_calibration_package:=false

• UPLOAD MOVEIT ENVIRONMENT:

roslaunch boris_description display.launch load_moveit:=true use_rviz:=false use_robot_sim:=false

• UPLOAD EVERYTHING IN SIMULATION:

roslaunch boris_description display.launch

• UPLOAD SIMULATION DRIVERS ONLY (AS IF YOU LAUNCH THE ROBOT DRIVERS IN A REMOTE PC):

roslaunch boris_description display.launch load_moveit:=true use_rviz:=false calibration:=false

A suggested hardware cockpit setup, using the joint trajectory controller rqt plugin: