SensorizedAllegroHandTutorial

Summary: This tutorial describes how to launch and visualize the sensor on the back of the Allegro Hand, which is currently on the Flexiv arm.

Date: 9-1-2022

Author: Rachel

Steps for Visualizing Live Tactile Data

1. Make sure that the USB cable from the sensor is plugged into the computer. There is currently a black USB cable connected to the hand and a grey USB extender which runs to the computer below the robot table.
2. In naboo terminal, go to directory "~/rt_ws".
3. Open 3 tabs. Run "source devel/setup.bash" in each of the 3 tabs.
4. In tab number one, run "roscore".
5. In tab number two, run "rosrun bici_ros_sensor_reader sensor_parser". If it complains about a bad file descriptor, first run "ls /dev" and check if you see ttyUSB0 in the list. If you do, this might be a port permissions thing, try running "sudo chmod 777 /dev/ttyUSB0". If you do NOT see ttyUSB0 in the list, either (1) the USB is not connected properly or (2) it's under a different name. If the problem is (2) you will see ttyUSB1, or ttyUSB2 or something like that in the list instead. You can unplug everything and replug it to reset the USB number, or, if that doesn't work, change the serial port name in "~/rt_ws/src/BICI_ROS_sensor_reader/src/sensor_parser.cpp" to reflect what you see on the list.
6. In tab number 3, run "rosrun bici_ros_sensor_reader vis_BOH_live.py". This should launch the live visualization of the sensor data on the screen.

Steps for Running Xbox Controller Demo that Responds to Sensor Data

This demo allows you to control the robot in cartesian space using the xbox controller, but the robot slows down a bit once the Allegro back of hand sensor detects contact, and stops if tip is detected. If tip is detected, remove the contact entirely to regain control.

1. Complete first 5 steps of previous section.
2. Follow Michael's tutorial for the Flexiv Xbox demo (see Flexiv Rizon), except in step 14 run the file xbox_allegro.py instead of cartesian_impedance_control.py.