3D ViTac: Learning Fine-Grained Manipulation with Visuo-Tactile Sensing

Project Website: https://binghao-huang.github.io/3D-ViTac/

This codebase contains python code and ros package for flexible tactile sensor in 3D-ViTac. To build the tactile sensors, follow the instructions below: [Hardware Assembly Tutorial] ,[Bills of Material]

1. Firmware

(1) Load the arduino code to the arduino.

2. PYTHON(option 1)

(1) Setup environment

    pip install pyserial
    pip install opencv-python==4.6.0.66
    pip install threading
    pip install scipy

(2)Start python visualization

    cd python
    python3 multi_thread_contact.py

3. ROS(option 2)

1. compile ros package(Assuming you have already installed ROS1)

    cd ros/tactile_ws
    catkin_make
   

2. rosrun tactile_sensor tactile_sensor.py

4. Multi Sensors name setup (optional)

1. setup multi thread tactile board name(Optional):

• One issue that arises is the port each robot binds to can change over time, e.g. a robot that is initially ttyUSB0 might suddenly become ttyUSB5.

• Take right_robot_left_finger: right master robot as an example:

  1. Find the port that the right master robot is currently binding to, e.g. ttyUSB0

  2. run udevadm info --name=/dev/ttyUSB0 --attribute-walk | grep serial to obtain the serial number. Use the first one that shows up, the format should look similar to FT6S4DSP.

  3. sudo vim /etc/udev/rules.d/99-tactile.rules and add the following line:

     SUBSYSTEM=="tty", ATTRS{serial}=="<serial number here>", ENV{ID_MM_DEVICE_IGNORE}="1", ATTR{device/latency_timer}="1", SYMLINK+="right_robot_left_finger"
     

  4. This will make sure the tactile in right_robot_left_finger is always binding to right_robot_left_finger

  5. Repeat with the rest of 3 arms.

• To apply the changes, run sudo udevadm control --reload && sudo udevadm trigger

• If successful, you should be able to find right_robot_left_finger in your /dev

🏷️ License

FlexiTac © 2025 by Columbia University is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/