Comment on page
Controlling PhantomX Pincher Robot Arm

In this tutorial, we will show you how to configure and remotely control PhantomX Pincher Robot connected to the Rover.
source: trossenrobotics.com
Prerequisites
Before you begin, make sure you have internet connection on your Rover.
Connect to the Internet
Also, you need to have ROS installed both on a Rover and your computer
Install ROS on Turtle Rover
Install ROS on your host machine
And, of course, assembled Pincher Arm together with ArbotiX-M Robocontroller connected to your Rover. 
1. On your computer
1.1 Flash ArbotiX-M Robocontroller board
To program Arbotix board, you can follow the Getting Started Guide from Trossen Robotics.
If everything works, open and upload the following sketch
File -> Sketchbook -> ArbotiX Sketches -> ros
1.2 Install Arbotix ROS drivers
You can install arbotix ROS packages from repository (ros-kinetic-arbotix package), but for the pincher gripper to work, you need to build an unrealeased 0.11.0 version which adds support for prismatic joints.
To build it, you can follow these steps:
source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.bash
mkdir -p ~/ros_ws/src && cd ~/ros_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/corb555/arbotix_ros
cd ~/ros_ws
rosdep update
rosdep install --from-paths src -iry
catkin build
1.3 Set Dynamixel IDs
Connect Arbotix-M board to your computer through FTDI-USB Cable​
Source your catkin workspace (either /opt/ros/kinetic or ~/ros_ws/devel depending on how you installed Arbotix ROS drivers) and run:
arbotix_terminal
arbotix_terminal by default, assumes the board is connected on /dev/ttyUSB0 port. If it is attached to another device, you can specify it like this: 
arbotix_terminal [PORT]
To check which port the device connects to, you can, for instance, run dmesg -w (Ctrl+C to exit), connect the device and check kernel logs. 
If you are using Ubuntu on Windows Subsytem for Linux , you need to open Device Manager and look under Ports for COM port number of the device. COM[N] corresponds to /dev/ttyS[N] path. (e.g. COM4 -> /dev/ttyS4). You might need to run:
 sudo chmod 666 /dev/ttyS[N]
A terminal prompt should appear. Type help for list of commands.
Connect the Dynamixel you want to set id to. Then type ls to see id of connected servo and mv [source] [target] to change it. For example, when the servo has id 1 and we want to set it to 2, just type mv 1 2. 
On PhantomX pincher arm, servo ids should look like this:
source: trossenrobotics.com
When done, type Ctrl+C to exit terminal
1.4 Test Arbotix ROS drivers
We will create a package that tests arbotix driver. Let's start by creating an empty package
source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.bash
mkdir -p ~/ros_ws/src && cd ~/ros_ws/src
catkin create pkg arbotix_test --catkin-deps arbotix_python
Inside your package, create config/test.yaml file with following content (change port if needed):
port: /dev/ttyUSB0
rate: 15
joints: {
    servo1: {id: 1},
    servo2: {id: 2},
    servo3: {id: 3},
    servo4: {id: 4},
    servo5: {id: 5}
}
You can set more parameters for each joint, like maximum speed, minimum and maximum angle etc. A brief documentation (Unfortunately, a little outdated) can be found here​
And launch/test.launch with following:
<launch>
  <node name="arbotix" pkg="arbotix_python" type="arbotix_driver" output="screen">
    <rosparam file="$(find arbotix_test)/config/test.yaml" command="load" />
  </node>
</launch>
Now, build your workspace
cd ~/ros_ws
catkin build
From now on, you need to run source ~/ros_ws/devel/setup.bash on every terminal session you open (or add it to ~/.bashrc)
Run Master node on one terminal
roscore
And on another, run your launch file​
roslaunch arbotix_test test.launch
Now, check available topics and services
rostopic list
rosservice list
You should see command topics that let you set position (in radians) for each servo and joint_states topic that informs about position and velocity of each joint. There should also be services that allow enabling, relaxing or setting speed (in radians/sec) for each servo.
Let's try to move servo1 joint. 
First, set speed to a safe value (0.2 r/s in this case):
rosservice call /servo1/set_speed 0.2
Move servo to a default neutral value:
rostopic pub /servo1/command std_mgs/Float64 -- 0.0
The maximum angle range for a dynamixel servo is [-150, 150] degrees which is equal to approximately [-2.62, 2.62] in radians
Relax joint:
rosservice call /servo1/relax
You can also use arbotix_gui to control each joint. Just type:
arbotix_gui
A graphical application should appear:
Enable and relax servos by clicking on checkboxes and set position by moving sliders.
Summary
Here's a recording of a terminal session in which we do things mentioned in the tutorial up to this point:
​​
​​
1.5 Install turtlebot_arm packages
The turtlebot_arm packages contain very useful utilities for PhantomX Pincher arm such as:
configuration for arbotix driver
​URDF model of the arm
​Moveit! configuration package
​IKFast Kinematics solver plugin
MoveIt! pick and place demo
Let's build it
source ~/ros_ws/devel/setup.bash
cd ~/ros_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/turtlebot/turtlebot_arm.git -b kinetic-devel
cd ~/ros_ws
rosdep install --from-paths src -iry
catkin build
To use this packages with PhantomX Pincher, you need to have TURTLEBOT_ARM1 environment variable set to pincher . To set it automatically on every terminal session, add export command to .bashrc file:
echo "export TURTLEBOT_ARM1=pincher" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
Make sure to have roscore running, then type:
roslaunch turtlebot_arm_bringup arm.launch
This should run Arbotix driver, robot_state_publisher and set robot_description parameter.
To view robot arm model with actual position:
Open rviz
For Fixed Frame select arm_base_link
Click Add in Displays panel
Select RobotModel and click Ok
To test Motion Planning with MoveIt! : 
Run turtlebot_arm_moveit launch file:

roslaunch turtlebot_arm_moveit_config turtlebot_arm_moveit.launch sim:=false
Click on Planning tab in Motion Planning display
Move interactive marker to intended position
Click on Plan to see Motion visualization and then Execute or just click on Plan and Execute
Run pick and place demo (in another terminal session)
​
rosrun turtlebot_arm_moveit_demos pick_and_place.py
2. On your Turtle Rover
2.1 Prepare catkin workspace
Let's prepare a catkin workspace for pincher arm. Start by sourcing the workspace you want to extend. If you don't have an existing development workspace, just do:
source /opt/ros/kinetic/setup.bash
Download necessary packages
mkdir -p ~/ros_ws/src && cd ~/ros_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/corb555/arbotix_ros.git
git clone https://github.com/turtlebot/turtlebot_arm.git
We only need turtlebot_arm_bringup and turtlebot_arm_description packages, so we can remove the rest
cd ~/ros_ws/src/turtlebot_arm
mv turtlebot_arm_bringup turtlebot_arm_description ~/ros_ws/src
cd ~/ros_ws/src
rm -rf turtlebot_arm
Use rosdep to check for missing dependencies
cd ~/ros_ws
rosdep update
rosdep install --from-paths src -i
You should see an error message similar to this:
ERROR: the following packages/stacks could not have their rosdep keys resolved
to system dependencies:
arbotix_python: No definition of [actionlib] for OS [debian]
turtlebot_arm_description: No definition of [xacro] for OS [debian]
arbotix_controllers: No definition of [tf] for OS [debian]
turtlebot_arm_bringup: No definition of [robot_state_publisher] for OS [debian]
Download missing packages and their recursive dependencies
rosinstall_generator actionlib xacro tf robot_state_publisher control_msgs --deps --wet-only --exclude RPP > src/.rosinstall
wstool update -t src
Run rosdep again to install any new system dependencies
rosdep install --from-paths src -iry
Now, build the workspace
catkin build -j 2
2.2 Start necessary Nodes
Source your workspace
source ~/ros_ws/devel/setup.bash
For ROS to work on multiple machines, you need to set specific Environment Variables:
export TURTLEBOT_ARM1=pincher
export ROS_IP=10.0.0.1
export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://10.0.0.1:11311
Add these lines to ~/.bashrc to set them automatically
Now, run Master node on one terminal
roscore
And on another, type:
roslaunch turtlebot_arm_bringup arm.launch
2.3 Control the arm from your computer
Source your workspace containing turtlebot_arm packages
source ~/ros_ws/devel/setup.bash
Set required variables
export TURTLEBOT_ARM1=pincher
export ROS_IP=X.X.X.X
export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://10.0.0.1:11311
Replace X.X.X.X with your local IP address. To check your address, you can use ip address command
You can now use the examples we described earlier, e.g.:
arbotix_gui
or MoveIt! demo:
roslaunch turtlebot_arm_moveit_config turtlebot_arm_moveit.launch sim:=false
​
ROS tutorials - Previous
Install ROS on your host machine
Next - Electronics develoment guide
Firmware update / flashing
Last modified 4yr ago