TCPSbed (v1.0)

A Modular Testbed for Tactile Internet based Cyber-Physical Systems

v1.0 (Description): Demonstrates basic testbed operation. Operator uses a USB mouse to control a robot simulated in VREP. Force feedback received from the robot side is printed at the ms-com terminal. Testbed components ms-com, srv, ss-com and embys-apps are run on different hosts simulated in Mininet.

- Note: This is a demo version of TCPSbed. Only kinematic and haptic flows are supported in this version, support for other flows will be included soon. Only ms-embsys-app-mouseController and ss-embsys-vrep are supported in this version, support for other embsys-apps will be included soon.

OS Requirement

Ubuntu 18.04

Package Requirements

Python v2.7; mininet $sudo apt-get install mininet; ffmpeg, libav-tools $sudo apt-get install ffmpeg libav-tools ;pyaudio $sudo apt-get install python-pyaudio ;pyinput $sudo python -m pip install pynput==1.1.7 ;python-xlib $sudo apt-get install python-xlib ;net-tools $sudo apt install net-tools ;libasound-dev portaudio19-dev libportaudio2 libportaudiocpp0 $sudo apt-get install libasound-dev portaudio19-dev libportaudio2 libportaudiocpp0 ;pandas $sudo python -m pip install pandas ;pyserial $sudo python -m pip install pyserial ;xlrd $sudo python -m pip install xlrd ;opencv $sudo apt-get install python-opencv ;mss sudo python -m pip install mss==3.1.2 ;scipy $pip install -U scipy ;scikits.bootstrap $pip install scikits.bootstrap ;sudo apt install libgl1-mesa-dev

VREP Integration

VREP is a simulator platform for robots. For demonstration of the testbed we need to install VREP. First, download VREP v3.6.0 from https://www.coppeliarobotics.com/downloads and extract it to a folder. Next, update the parameter 'vrep_path' in TCPSbed/runDirectory/config to correspond to the path of the executable 'vrep.sh'

Demonstration-A: Control of a Remote-Side Robot

Testbed Component Placement (in Mininet)

• ms-embsys-app-mouseController is run on ms-com
• ss-embsys-app-vrep is run on ss-com
• To edit the delay, bandwidth and traffic of the links, change the default settings in the file TCPSbed/mininetScript/settings

• To run the testbed, go to the folder mininetScript and run the command $sudo python mininetScript.py
• Wait for the xterm/windows ms-com, ss-com, srv, v-rep and ms-embsys-app-mouseController and ss-embsys-app-vrep to pop up
• Now use the mouse to control the PhantomX robot simulated in VREP
  • Right click the mouse to start the mouse control. Right click again to stop the mouse control
  • Mouse movements in X-Y direction is mapped to robot X-Y axis. Y movement of the mouse, while the left button is pressed is mapped to the Z axis of the robot.
  • Use scroll wheel to open and close the pincher.
• The force experienced by the robot when it hits an object is fedback to ms-com. The value is displayed in the ms-com terminal.

Demonstration-B: Control of a Remote-Side Conveyor Belt

Follow the testbed component placement as in Demonstration-A. Edit the config file (TCPSbed/runDirectory/config) to replace the line "vrep_scene = "scenePhantomXGeneric.ttt" with "vrep_scene = "sceneConveyerBeltGeneric.ttt"

• To run the testbed, go to the folder mininetScript and run the command $sudo python mininetScript.py
• Wait for the xterm/windows ms-com, ss-com, srv, v-rep and ms-embsys-app-mouseController and ss-embsys-app-vrep to pop up
• Now use the mouse to control the PhantomX robot simulated in VREP
  • Right click the mouse to start the mouse control. Right click again to stop the mouse control
  • Use scroll wheel to change the direction and speed of the conveyor belt.

Publications

[1] Kurian Polachan, T Venkata Prabhakar, Chandramani Singh, Fernando A. Kuipers, "Towards an Open Testbed for Tactile Cyber Physical Systems", 11th 11th International Conference on COMmunication Systems & NETworkS, COMSNETS 2019 at Bangalore, India.