prefab.MobileTrunk

The MobileTrunk's robot prefab for SoftRobots.

Index

• Requirement
• Compile sofa
• Install Required dependencies
• Download and set up working space
• Install ROS and set up working space
• Launch test
• Connecting the digital twin to the physical robot
• License

Requirement

This prefab was developed as part of the SOMOROB project. The goal is to integrate a deformable robotic trunk (softrobot) on a 4-wheeled mobile robot base equipped with a LIDAR and to develop its digital twin equivalent. The deformable trunk is a project Echelon 3 developed by the Defrost team at INRIA. The mobile base is developed by the company Robotnik automation

Compile SOFA

For that follow these instructions (We will install the linux one)

Install Required dependencies

For that follow these instructions (We will install the linux one) (The best way to add plugin to SOFA is explained here)

• STLIB

  foo@bar:~$  git clone https://github.com/SofaDefrost/STLIB.git

• SoftRobots

  foo@bar:~$  git clone https://github.com/SofaDefrost/SoftRobots.git

• SofaPython3

  foo@bar:~$  git clone https://github.com/sofa-framework/SofaPython3

• BeamAdapter

  foo@bar:~$  git clone https://github.com/SofaDefrost/BeamAdapter

Download and set up working space

Download the mobile trunk's prefab

Now that you have a compiled & working SOFA with the required plugins, we can clone prefab.MobileTrunk repository.

• Create a directory where you will put it

• Move into it and clone the last working version

  foo@bar:~$  git clone https://github.com/CRIStAL-PADR/prefab.MobileTrunk

Set up working space

Open your bashrc and add the following lines in order to setup your working space

• Add to the PATH the path to the bin folder contained in the SOFA build folder

      export PATH="/path to buid folder/build/bin:$PATH"

• Tell to SOFA_ROOT the path where to find the path to the buid folder of SOFA

      export SOFA_ROOT=/path to buid folder/build

• Tell to SOFAPYTHON3_ROOT where to find the path to the plugin SofaPython3

      export SOFA_ROOT=/path to SofaPython3 plugin folder/SofaPython3

• Make an alias in order to be able to launch Sofa easily by doing a runSofa

      runSofa="/path to buid folder/build/bin/runSofa"

• Add to the PYTHONPATH the path to STLIB

      export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:/path to build folder/build/lib/python3/site-packages:/path to STLIB plugin folder/STLIB/python3/src:/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages

Install ROS and set up working space

The digital twin has a ros2 interface while the mobile platform (summit_xl) has a ros1 interface. It is possible to be able to link the digital twin to the real robot using rosbridge.

Install ros2 and ros1

Install the [noetic](http://wiki.ros.org/noetic/Installation/Ubuntu) version for ros1 in order to
be able to use rosbridge

Install the [foxy](https://docs.ros.org/en/foxy/Installation.html) version for ros2.

If you are new to ros you can follow the [tutorials](https://docs.ros.org/en/foxy/Tutorials.html)
before continuing


Install rosbridge

```console
foo@bar:~$  sudo apt-get install -y ros-foxy-ros1-bridge
```

Set up working space

Open your bashrc and add the following lines in order to setup your working space for ros

• Create an alias for noetic(ros1) and foxy(ros2) in order to be able to source your terminal more easily

      alias foxy="source /opt/ros/foxy/setup.bash"
      alias noetic="source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash"

• Add to PYTHONPATH the path to sofaros api

     export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:/path to SoftRobot plugin folder/SoftRobots/docs/sofapython3/examples/sofaros

Launch test

To confirm all the previous steps and verify that the prefab is working properly you can :

Test using sofa controller

• Launch the summit_xl.py SOFA scene situated in prefab.MobileTrunk/mobile_trunk_sim by doing:

  foo@bar:~$  runSofa summit_xl

• If everything went well you should see the GUI Sofa with the digital twin of

  

• Then with your keyboard send velocity and orientation command to the Sofa scene in order to see the robot move.

Test using ros api

• source your terminal using :

  foo@bar:~$  foxy

• Go to the directory where the prefab.MobleTrunk/mobile_trunk_sim folder is located and run the following command:

  foo@bar:~$  runSofa ros_summitxl.py

• Open a new terminal then source it as before then execute the commands to the following command:

      foo@bar:~$  colcon build && . install/setup.bash && foxy

• You can now launch the keyboard controller to interact with the robot in the simulation

      foo@bar:~$  ros2 run summitxl summitxl_teleop_key
  

• If everything went well you should see this appear in the terminal

  

Connecting the digital twin to the physical robot

License

Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal see LICENSE