arx5-manipulation

This is the PhiLab arx5 manipulation repo.

Setup

The project is completely based on arx5-sdk@Stanford. First, for the setup, we can use the same instruction on https://github.com/real-stanford/arx5-sdk.

The steps are basically the following (Mamba can be replaced by conda, but mamba is recommended):

mamba env create -f conda_environments/py310_environment.yaml
# if you do not have mamba, you can also use conda, which takes significantly longer
# Currently available python versions: 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11 
conda activate arx-py310 
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make -j
# At this point, you should be able to run test scripts below.

Then install USB Can Tools.

sudo apt install can-utils
sudo apt install net-tools

Refer to the For adapters using SLCAN framework section of the original arx5 sdk repo.

After the above steps are all set, it must be noted that in each launch of the robot arm after turning on the device, the following command must be executed:

sudo slcand -o -f -s8 /dev/arxcan0 can0 && sudo ifconfig can0 up
sudo slcand -o -f -s8 /dev/arxcan1 can1 && sudo ifconfig can1 up
sudo ip link set up can0 type can bitrate 1000000
sudo ip link set up can1 type can bitrate 1000000

It must be noted that we have two arms, one uses can0 and the other uses can1.

Script Usage

arm_follow

description: A teleoperation demo for one arm following the other. usage:

python arm_follow L5

Where L5 is the arm model. ARX L5 arm are no longer on sale; however R5 has the same urdf model as L5. Only L5 is implemented.

collect data

description: Collect data using teleoperation (An upgrade from arm_follow). Also utilizes two realsense cameras.

usage:

python collect data <episode_number>

The collected data is stored at default location ~/data. Also note that install pyrealsense using pip before running this script. Replace the episode_numnber with the index of your the current episode index.

process data

description: process the data in ~/data into zarr array.

usage:

python process_data.py

Note: Please modifiy the maximum episode number in the script! The default value is 10. If the episode number is not 10 please modify! Also intall python zarr package before using.