Getting Started

Ready to control your own robotic gripper? Let's get started.

Get the code

First, clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/TUM-LSY/aloha4franka.git
cd aloha4franka

Create a symlink

Connect your motors, to the power and the USB to your computer - They'll show up as /dev/ttyACM0 or /dev/ttyUSB0. Find your gripper's serial ID using cyme (or lsusb). Configure the udev rule - Update scripts/99_gripper.rules with your serial ID:

SUBSYSTEM=="tty", ATTRS{serial}=="FT9HDCKD", SYMLINK+="name_for_your_gripper", MODE="0666", ATTR{device/latency_timer}="1"

Warning

If you skip this step, you will have to manually set the mode of the gripper every time you power it off with:

sudo chmod 666 /dev/ttyUSB0

Also, it might be that the device name varies every time you plug it in. We highly recommend not skipping this step.

Build a start the container

docker compose build
NAMESPACE=your_namespace DEVICE=/dev/name_for_your_gripper docker compose up launch_aloha

to start the gripper.

Using a different RMW

Multi-machine setup? For distributed systems using crisp_py, we recommend CycloneDDS or Zenoh middleware for better performance!

ROS_NETWORK_INTERFACE=enpXXXX RMW=cyclone NAMESPACE=right DEVICE=/dev/name_for_your_gripper docker compose up launch_aloha

Calibrate and Test the gripper with CRISP

Now the gripper is ready to control! You can get the topic joint values as well as command topics to communicate with the gripper. If you use crisp_py or crisp_gym you can use your gripper to it.

First run a calibration:

python crisp_py/scripts/gripper_manual_calibration.py --help

The script will guide you in the calibration procedure:

After running a succesful calibration, you can instantiate a gripper object to control it:

import time
from crisp_py.gripper.gripper import Gripper

gripper = Gripper.from_yaml("your_gripper_config.yaml")
gripper.wait_until_ready()

gripper.open()
time.sleep(3.0)

gripper.close()
time.sleep(3.0)

gripper.set_target(0.5)
time.sleep(3.0)

Enjoy the gripper!