ricmua / ros_force_dimension

A ROS2 package for interfacing with Force Dimension haptics robots.

• 👋 Hi, I’m @ricmua

ros_force_dimension's Issues

Add WSL documentation

@Jshulgach wrote documentation for Windows Subsystem for Linux. It is currently on a branch on a remote machine. Push and incorporate.

Build fails on Linux due to flawed reference to Force Dimension library

ROS Iron

5.19.0-50-generic
#50-Ubuntu SMP
Jul 10 2023
x86_64

No rule to make target '/home/default/work/force_dimension-sdk-3.15.0/lib/dhdms64.lib', needed by 'node'.

This seems to be due to the line that in the cmake file that references dhdms64.lib... which seems to be a file in the Windows SDK? It is not clear for how long this has been an issue, and why it has not been flagged sooner. It is also not clear how this has built in the past.

run_example fails on MS Windows

The run_example script is an executable script with a shebang line that is designed for Linux. It contains valid Python code, but will fail if invoked via a ROS2 run or launch command (e.g., ros2 run force_dimension run_example) when using the MS Windows operating system.

Implement an example script that uses forces

Although there is a Python example for quickly testing out the Force Dimension node, it does not involve forces. It would make sense to create another script that involves forces -- perhaps by mirroring the center.cpp example in the Force Dimension SDK.

Originally posted by @ricmua in #10 (comment)

Enable forces for Sigma.7

The delta robot has a control unit with a physical button (see page 16 of the manual). For the sigma robot, however, forces are enabled and disabled programmatically (see page 20 of the manual). Examples in the Force Dimension SDK tend to invoke dhdEnableForce early in execution. This was likely true in early versions of the ROS2 node in this package, but the functionality was removed. In order to ensure that the node works with the sigma robot, this should be re-added.

Support tf2

An early decision was made to avoid tf2 (see the ROS2 introduction to tf2). Re-evaluate that decision.

See pull request 15 (and issue 16),

Flaw in sample timer initialization (interval type)

There is a fairly basic flaw in the on_activate method of the node. An int type is used for sample_interval_ms, instead of float, while setting the sample timer. This effectively sets an upper limit of 1000 Hz on the sample frequency. This won't be enough for smooth robot control.

Button feedback message should be of Boolean type

The dhdGetButton function returns a numeric type that must be compared to DHD_ON. This comparison should be done before publishing, since the client might not have access to the value of DHD_ON.

Support `dhdGetPositionAndOrientationFrame`, `dhdGetAngularVelocityRad`, `dhdSetForceAndTorque`

See pull request 15. Increase the coverage of the Force Dimension SDK to include these functions.

Recode the launch file for the Python example as YAML

The ROS2 launch file intended to facilitate running of the Python example should be expressed as YAML, since it is more easily interpreted by those that are new to ROS.