Falcon as a Robot

Description

This is a special application for the Novint Falcon. The Falcon is used as a robot with compliance control. We used an Optoforce OMD-10-SE-10N sensor to measure the forces. In this application the device is running on a real-time patched linux kernel. We used xenomai 2.6.4 to make a RTOS. The GUI application for the device is written in Qt, in C++ language. To communicate with the Falcon we used the libnifalcon library.

Features

Without any command the robot stays at home position.
Path logging mode: you can log a path by moving the end-effector with your hand. And you can save or load the logging path. After saving/opening you can replay it.
Trajectory planning: you can generate any path with trapezoid velocity profile by adding positions in the workspace. You can also set the maximum velocity and acceleration.
Compliance control mode: the compliance mode can be used in any operation mode.
You can change the parameters of the PD controller and the compliance model.
Plotting: you can plot in real-time using the encoder angles and the position of the robot and you can plot the positions, the velocities and the acceleratings of the generated trajectory.

Installation Guide

Dependencies

Ubuntu linux 14.04
Xenomai 2.6.x version
Qt Creator with Qt version: Qt 4.8.6 (qt4)

Installation steps:

Xenomai patched linux:

There are two ways to install xenomai patched linux.

First method:

Install Ubuntu linux 14.04 from here.
Install Xenomai 2.6.x by using this guide from the Xenomai homepage.

Second method:

Go to RTXI installtion page
Select the "Custom method"
Follow the insturctions to step 6.

I prefer the second method because it is faster and more conforable than the first method.

Qt Creator

Install the GCC compiler:
```
sudo apt-get install g++
```
Install Qt Creator 4 or 5:

install qt4:
```
sudo apt-get install qt4-default
```
to install Qt Creator 4 use this command:
```
sudo apt-get install qtcreator
```
to install Qt Creator 5 go to Qt download page then download and install it.
Set up the kit in the Qt Creator:
- open Qt Creator
- go to "Tools" -> "Options"
- choose "Build & Run"
- select the "Kit" tab
- click "Add"
- type a name (for example: Qt 4)
- choose the GCC compiler (32 or 64 bit version)
- at the "Qt version" choose "Qt 4.8.6 (qt4)"
  - if you cannot find it then follow these steps:
    1. go to "Qt Versions" tab
    2. click "Add"
    3. navigate to /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt4/bin
    4. choose the qmake file and click "Open"
    5. go back to the "Kits" tab and now you can select the Qt4 version
- click to "Make Default" then "Apply" and "OK"

Install the libraries:

Extract the "install-FaaR.tar. gz":
```
sudo tar -xf install-FaaR.tar.gz
```
In the terminal navigate to the extracted folder then type these commands:
```
sudo chmod +x install-dependencies.sh
```
```
sudo ./install-dependencies.sh
```

zhangfaquan / iRob-FaaR