| Note: This tutorial assumes that you have completed the previous tutorials: ROS/Tutorials. |
 Please ask about problems and questions regarding this tutorial on answers.ros.org. Don't forget to include in your question the link to this page, the versions of your OS & ROS, and also add appropriate tags. |
ROS Packages Installation
Description: Install the last qb SoftHand Research and qb SoftHand2 Research related ROS packagesKeywords: qbrobotics SoftHand SoftHand2 installation
Tutorial Level: BEGINNER
Show EOL distros:
Requirements
If you have never set it up, you probably need to add your linux user to the dialout group to grant right access to the serial port resources. To do so, just open a terminal and execute the following command:
sudo gpasswd -a <user_name> dialout
where you need to replace the <user_name> with your current linux username.
Note: Don't forget to logout or reboot.
Ubuntu Packages
If you prefer to leave your catkin workspace as it is, you can simply install all the ROS packages from the Ubuntu official repositories:
sudo apt update sudo apt install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-qb-hand
Sources
Since you are interested in the ROS interfaces for our devices, it is assumed that you are familiar at least with the very basics of the ROS environment. If not, it might be useful to spend some of your time with ROS and catkin tutorials. After that, don't forget to come back here and start having fun with our Nodes.
Install the packages for a ROS user is straightforward. Nonetheless the following are the detailed steps which should be easy to understand even for ROS beginners:
Clone both the qb_device and qb_hand packages to your Catkin Workspace, e.g. ~/catkin_ws:
cd `~/catkin_ws/src` git clone --recurse-submodules --branch production-$ROS_DISTRO https://bitbucket.org/qbrobotics/qbdevice-ros.git git clone --branch production-$ROS_DISTRO https://bitbucket.org/qbrobotics/qbhand-ros.git
Compile the packages using catkin:
cd `~/catkin_ws` catkin_make
Note: depending on your ROS installation, you may need some extra packages to properly compile the code. Please, be sure that you have already installed at least ros-$ROS_DISTRO-ros-controllers, ros-$ROS_DISTRO-transmission-interface, ros-$ROS_DISTRO-joint-limits-interface, ros-$ROS_DISTRO-combined-robot-hw, and their dependencies (e.g. use sudo apt install <ros-pkg>).
If you were not familiar with ROS you should be happy now: everything is done! Nonetheless, if you encounter some troubles during the compilation, feel free to ask for support on our Bitbucket.
Device Setup
Connect a qb SoftHand Research or a qb SoftHand2 Research to your system is basically a matter of plugging in a USB cable. Nonetheless, read carefully the product manual to understand all the requirements and advices about either single-device or chained configurations.
