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 packages

Keywords: 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:

  1. 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
  2. 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>).

  3. 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.

Wiki: qb_hand/Tutorials/ROS Packages Installation (last edited 2023-07-31 06:53:32 by UmbertoFontana)