Dual Arm Joystick Control

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Overview

This package allows the user to control two (or any number of) X-Series arms using a single joystick controller. This package relies on two lower-level packages, interbotix_xsarm_dual to provide simultaneous control of multiple arms, and interbotix_xsarm_joy to provide joystick control.

Structure

../_images/xsarm_dual_joy_flowchart.png

As shown above, the interbotix_xsarm_dual_joy package builds on top of the interbotix_xsarm_control, interbotix_xsarm_joy and interbotix_xsarm_dual packages. See the other packages for descriptions of their nodes.

Usage

To get started, see the Usage section for both of the lower-level packages mentioned previously.

If you have a Bluetooth controller and it is not yet connected to you computer, see X-Series Arm Bluetooth Setup.

Once you have familiarized yourself with the capabilities of the lower-level packages, you will be ready to use this one. We will assume that you have done the following:

  • Properly paired your controller with your computer.
  • Configured udev rules.
  • Checked the /dev/ttyUSB* device name for each arm.
  • Changed the settings in the config files config/, especially port.

Unplug/replug the U2D2s to refresh the ports and run the launch file below with the correct robot model in place of <MODEL_*>.

$ roslaunch interbotix_xsarm_dual_joy xsarm_dual_joy.launch robot_model_1:=<MODEL_1> robot_model_2:=<MODEL_2>

You can now use your Bluetooth controller to move around the arms.

To further customize the launch file at run-time (like with a different robot model), look at the table below:

Argument Description Default Value
robot_model_1 model type of the first Interbotix Arm such as ‘wx200’ or ‘rx150’ “”
robot_name_1 arbitrary name that is unique to the first robot arm “arm_1”
base_link_1 name of the ‘root’ link on the arm; typically ‘base_link’, but can be changed if attaching the arm to a mobile base that already has a ‘base_link’ frame ‘base_link’
modes_1 the file path to the ‘mode config’ YAML file for the first robot refer to xsarm_dual_joy.launch
robot_model_2 model type of the second Interbotix Arm such as ‘wx200’ or ‘rx150’ “”
robot_name_2 arbitrary name that is unique to the second robot arm “arm_2”
base_link_2 name of the ‘root’ link on the arm; typically ‘base_link’, but can be changed if attaching the arm to a mobile base that already has a ‘base_link’ frame ‘base_link’
modes_2 the file path to the ‘mode config’ YAML file for the second robot refer to xsarm_dual_joy.launch
use_sim if true, the Dynamixel simulator node is run; use RViz to visualize the robot’s motion; if false, the real Dynamixel driver node is run false
use_rviz launches RViz to show both arms false
rvizconfig file path to the config file RViz should load refer to xsarm_dual_joy.launch
threshold value from 0 to 1 defining joystick sensitivity; a larger number means the joystick should be less sensitive 0.75
controller type of controller (‘ps3’, ‘ps4’, or ‘xbox360’) ps4
topic_joy_raw topic containing raw joystick commands that the xs_arm_joy nodes should subscribe to “/commands/joy_raw”

Video Tutorials

Using a Joystick to Control X-Series Arms