Franka

This page gives some background of the usage of our Franka-related packages.
All software is based on the Franka Emika Research, based on the Franka Control Interface

Quickstart robot in simulation

To start the simulation, run in 2 separate terminals:

ros2 launch rcdt_franka franka.launch.py realsense:=True load_gazebo_ui:=True

ros2 run rosboard rosboard_node

This launches the robot in a gazebo world with a brick place on it.
It also allows the inspection of sensor output on localhost:8888 The robot can be controled using a gamepad, or using moveit MotionPlanning in rviz under:
add>moveit_ros_visualization>MotionPanning

In order to run the brick pickup demo, open up 2 more terminals and run:

ros2 launch rcdt_detection detection_services.launch.py

pyflow

The relevant pygraph is available under:
/home/rcdt/rcdt_robotics/pyflow/graphs/pick_brick.pygraph

Quickstart physical robot

When you have a properly configured physical robot and a realsense at your disposal. In 2 separate terminals, run:

ros2 launch rcdt_franka franka.launch.py simulation:=False realsense:=True

ros2 run rosboard rosboard_node

Running the brick pickup demo can be done in the same way.

Setup & FCI activation of pysical robot

First plug an ehternet cable into your laptop, and connect it to the control box’s LAN port (this is not the LAN port on the arm itself).
Additionally, change your ethernet ipv4 settings to Manual and set the following:
Address: 172.16.0.1
Netmask: 255.255.255.0

pyflow

You may also want to consider making this a separate profile for future convenience when moving to different networks.

If the robot’s power switch is turned on, you should now be able to go to https://172.16.0.2.
Fill in the username and password, and click unlock.
After that, click My Franka Robot> Activate FCI. The robot is now ready to be controlled by the user, and the commands in quickstart can be run.

—TODO: screenshot here—-