spot_arm

Tele-operation of Spot Robot arm using Hololens 2

Prerequisities

• spot_ros at https://github.com/willat343/spot_ros.

Make sure that the estop gentle command is in the terminal, ready to be called when the robot starts working improperly:

rosservice call /spot/estop/gentle

Build

Clone this repository to your catkin_ws:

cd ~/catkin_ws/src
git clone git@github.com:MixedRealityETHZ/spot_arm.git
cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin build

spot_arm_interface

This is a ROS package for controlling the Spot arm from a stream of geometry_msgs/PoseStamped messages, such as from a Hololens 2 or published by the user.

Usage

First the spot_ros driver must be running on the robot, replacing PASSWORD with the spot password. Source the correct workspace and run the roslaunch.

source ws/devel/setup.bash
roslaunch spot_driver driver.launch hostname:=192.168.50.3 username:=admin password:=PASSWORD max_linear_velocity_x:=1.0 max_linear_velocity_y:=1.0 max_angular_velocity_z:=1.0

Also launch the tcp endpoint with default args:

source ws/devel/setup.bash
roslaunch ros_tcp_endpoint endpoint.launch

To configure your local machine to see Spot as the ROS master. Run hostname -I to get your ip address (e.g. <local_ip_address> = 192.168.1.28):

export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://192.168.1.243:11311
export ROS_IP=<local_ip_address>

To launch the camera compressed stream, run the following commands:

source ws/devel/setup.bash
roslaunch spot_arm_interface spot_arm_camera_republish.launch

To launch the arm interface, optionally turning rviz on:

source ws/devel/setup.bash
roslaunch spot_arm_interface spot_arm_interface.launch rviz:=false

To launch the Unity to ROS pose transformation node:

source ws/devel/setup.bash
rosrun unity_transform unity_to_ros_pose.py

Troubleshooting

Spot body doesn't move

• Make sure you are launching with the max linear and max angular velocity variables set to non-zero values, such as 1.0.
• Check that move_spot_body_enabled is set to true in default.yaml
• Try rosrun spot_move_interface spot_move_client and publish a pose to /spot_move_client/pose.
• If any of the cameras are not working (error messages in driver terminal), then this may stop spot movement

External Software

Spot-Arm

Prerequisites

sudo apt install ros-noetic-moveit

Build

cd ~/catkin_ws/src
git clone git@github.com:estherRay/Spot-Arm.git
cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin build

Usage

We are still working out the usage for this package. To launch the demo with gazebo + rviz:

roslaunch spot_moveit_config demo_gazebo.launch

To launch with without gazebo:

roslaunch spot_moveit_config demo.launch

Known Issue: in the Gazebo version, executation fails with an error like:

[ERROR] [1666736964.727028347, 25.118000000]: Unable to identify any set of controllers that can actuate the specified joints: [ Rev10 Rev11 Rev3 Rev6 Rev8 Rev9 ]
[ERROR] [1666736964.727042432, 25.118000000]: Known controllers and their joints:

[ INFO] [1666736964.738207870, 25.130000000]: ABORTED: Solution found but controller failed during execution

spot_simulation

Prerequisites

Install

This repository contains a Spot gazebo simulation. Before using it, make sure that you have necessary packages installed:

sudo apt install ros-$(rosversion -d)-effort-controllers \
                 ros-$(rosversion -d)-joint-state-controller \
                 ros-$(rosversion -d)-joint-state-publisher-gui \
                 ros-$(rosversion -d)-interactive-marker-twist-server \
                 ros-$(rosversion -d)-robot-state-publisher \
                 ros-$(rosversion -d)-teleop-legged-robots

Clone the repository to your catkin workspace:

cd ~/catkin_ws/src
git clone git@github.com:SoftServeSAG/spot_simulation.git
cd spot_simulation
git checkout spot_control
cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin build

If you work with Noetic ROS distro, you need to patch the spot_simulation/rs_description/launch/description.launch file by replacing type="state_publisher" with type="robot_state_publisher".

Usage

To launch the simulation environment:

roslaunch rs_gazebo HQ.launch

Once HQ is ready, spawn robot with:

roslaunch rs_gazebo robot.launch

For various control operations, consult the Control README Section. For example:

roslaunch rs_control talker.launch 

WSL2 Setup

If you work on Windows with WSL2, make sure to follow this tutorial to have GUI apps (e.g. Gazebo, RVIZ) running. Also see this video.

Synopsis:

1. Install X-Launch from https://github.com/microsoft/mixed-reality-robot-interaction-demo/wiki/BuildingDemoFromSource#for-windows-installing-xserver
2. Run X-Launch.
3. Run the following lines in WSL2:

export GAZEBO_IP=127.0.0.1
export DISPLAY=$(cat /etc/resolv.conf | grep nameserver | awk '{print $2}'):0 
export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=0